


Tennis Twins

by Jazeoth



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: ADHD, Comedy, Drama, Gender Identity, Humor, Music, Other, Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-04-04 06:52:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 33,560
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14014617
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jazeoth/pseuds/Jazeoth
Summary: Echizen Ryoka-Ryoma's twin sister-stayed in America to further her training in tennis already knowing her future profession. But something happened there that changed her life. Traumatic experiences change people. With the fear of the opposite gender, she took to cross-dressing.Missing her family, and wanting a fresh start, she decided to go back to Japan for high school. She would attend her brother's school, Seigaku Gakuen, and join the tennis team. Will she get over her fear? Possibly. She has already started, she just needs a push. For now, cross-dressing is her only answer. Would it also help that she would be surrounded by men on the team, who knows, but she's willing to take the chance.





	1. Chapter 1

“Thanks for the ride ol’ Big Ben,” Ryoka was handed a bag of hers from the trunk as she tried to pull her tennis bag off of the floor of the car. “Will, you shoved my bag under the seat with those gargantuan feet of yours.”

“Yeah? Well, you refused to sit in the middle and I had to put my feet  _ somewhere _ .”

“But the window seat is the best seat—plus you could just look over me.”

“True, you’re short enough,  _ pipsqueak _ .”

Ryoka winced comically, “Damn, I walked  _ right _ into that one.”

“Enough with the pointless banter you two.” Benjamin rumbled a deep laugh and closed the driver's seat door, “Now, wake the brick up and let’s get going. We gotta wait in a line for an hour and I don’t want you to miss your flight.”

“I’ll do the honours Dad,” Will’s smile turned malicious as he laughed evilly. “Jake’s in the  _ perfect _ position.” The victim had his head propped up on his shoulder and was leaning against the door with the window open.

“You should undo his seatbelt before opening the door.”

“Ryo, that’s  _ genius _ !” Will made sure the door was unlocked, and that Jake’s seatbelt was unbuckled. “ _ This _ is payback for the syrup incident,” he took his index and middle fingers, and shoved them into Jakes open mouth, and when he jolted awake, Will opened the door.

Jake tumbled magnificently down onto the concrete sidewalk and landed on his shoulders on the ground with a leg tangled in with the seatbelt. “What. The.  _ FUCK _ !” His angry voice sounded muffled with how his cheek pressed against the ground.

Ryoka snorted—the face he made when woken up by the assaulting fingers  _ really _ got to her—and hid behind the vehicle. An angry Jake was hilarious but not fun to deal with, he held grudges and remembered them for a  _ long _ time.

“Aww,  _ man _ !” Ryoka whined when she went into the trunk for her wheelie luggage bag. “My luggage was open, and my stuff’s all over the trunk!”

After folding and stuffing her clothes back in the bag, they waited in line to get her bags in. Grabbing a quick bite, the group sat down on a bench by the windows. There was a random dude passed out on the floor beside it. There was no other spot. The man was a heavier sleeper than Jake according to how he wasn’t budging, so they didn’t have to worry much about being loud. Besides, the airport was quite noisy to begin with.

Looking up to the time on a LED screen, Ryoka frowned. She only had about five minutes left until she had to go through customs and head to where her flight's gate was. 

"Looks like it's about time guys."

"Awe man, you  _ have _  to come back to visit!"

"Yeah, we can't dance without you Ryota."

Ryoka chuckled, "Well,  _ technically _ you can,” and she received scandalized looks from the two of them. “You can try making up some duo dances, and  _ I’ll _ make a solo. Then, next time we meet, we can show each other.”

“Fantastic idea, my young Padawan. Then we could alter them for more people if we want them to be a group performance.

Ryoka stood up and grabbed her two carry on bags, “I’ll see when I can come and visit.” The other two got up and followed her.

"You better. Or else I'll personally drag you back," Jake laughed.

"Yes, yes—and before you say anything, Will, I'll still practice." She thought of something, "Oh! Or— _ or, _  you guys can come visit me!" She offered, grinning.

"Okay then. You visit us, and we visit you, vice versa," Will smiled and ruffled her hair.

She made a face, "I keep telling you not to do that!" Ryoka kicked the back of his knees in to make Will stumble, "It'll make my wig fall off," she stage-whispered and straightened it out.

"Why not just cut your hair?"

"Cuz' my father would have an aneurysm if I did," she deadpanned and snorted, the other two laughed.

"Talk to him about it," Jake came in. "You've had many close calls here, and you won't have us to cover for you anymore."

"How about if something happens or if someone is on to me,  _ then _  I'll cut it." She offered. She was quite attached to it despite the inconvenience it caused.

Jake sighed, "I think that's the best we'll get out of him."

"Yup, I think so too," Will slapped his back, they laughed again.

Then an announcement came on for the boarding of her flight. She smiled sadly and waved. Will and Jake both waved back. "We'll Skype you!" They sighed once they saw that she was gone. They were going to miss her for the time that they would be apart.

"I can't wait. We'll be going there soon."

"Yeah, he'll be  _ so _  surprised."

"His face is gonna be priceless. Just don't leak it first, Jake."

Will felt a vibration in his back pocket, “Oh crap, that’s my dad. We better hurry back to the car.”

“Oh no, Big Ben gets scary when we make him wait. Let’s hurry and at least  _ try _ not to look suspicious.”

**• • • • • •**

Boarding the plane, Ryoka found herself bored immediately after takeoff. Takeoffs and landings were the best parts of the flight, turbulence was fun too though. Ryoka looked out the window, and they were already above the ocean. It was going to be a long flight, a whopping twelve hours. She got on the plane at 9 AM and wouldn’t be landing at about 2 PM Japan time. Time zones thoroughly confused her. The difference was five hours, but it took twelve to get there.

_ Okay, I’m going to bust my brain if I try to figure this out. I must stop. All I know is that it has something to do with the tilt of the earth and how it spins. _

Luckily, she had some entertainment to distract her from her own mindfuckery, a handheld gaming system and her iPod. She also had her phone, but they weren’t allowed on the plane, and the literal roaming charges would be insane. Going through her bag, she heard metallic jangling noises and found three boxes.

“They  _ didn’t _ .” She was amazed, she’d been collecting the series of cast iron puzzles for about two months now. Ryoka just recently got into the cast iron ones, before she focused on wooden and wire ones. “These things are expensive too, this must have cost fifty bucks.” They were the last three she was looking for a week before, and she couldn’t find the three she wanted whenever she went to a shop. 

A letter comprised of rainbow sticky notes was stuck on the back of them, and Ryoka couldn’t help but crack a smile.

> **_Yo, what’s up mah homie? How’s the flight so far? Not that you can reply yet. Have these to enjoy during the trip. You know how much effort it took to hide these from you whenever you went into the store? Fucking A-_ ** **LOT** **_!!! Ya never knew we could be so sneaky, huh? It’s the Asian blood, we’re descendants of ninja and feudal lords I tell you._ **

A second part was hidden underneath, and from the messier handwriting, it was Jake’s.

> **_Okay, so I read Will’s note, and I don’t know what to write now, our thought processes are too alike. Uh, have fun with those puzzles. If you get stumped on them, I hid print out sheets in your bag with tutorial pictures. Twelve hours stuck in a confined space with hundreds of other people must be absolutely_ ** **incredible** **_. Please try not to get sick or go insane—wait, too late. That plane left long ago. Speaking of plane, how long is the flight from L.A to Japan anyways, I don’t think we asked—or if we did, I forgot._ **

Ryoka laughed into her hand in an effort to not disturb the little kid beside her, they fell asleep right after screaming and wailing in fear. “I’m gonna keep these and stick them somewhere when I get home.”

She started from easy to hard, the puzzles had ratings on the box, going from four to six. The two easier ones were rings, and the hardest one had two elks that had to be taken apart. When she got fed up with the two ring puzzles after spending an hour on each, she rested her mind and looked out the window.

Ryoka obviously didn’t have enough to eat before the flight, because when the flight attendants came around with the complimentary snacks, her stomach was not satisfied and demanded more with loud, obnoxious growls.

She spent another hour on the last, and hardest puzzle, only to find that it was easier than the other two. “Hm, odd.”

Ryoka yawned. She made an effort to pull an all-nighter with Will and Jake so that she would be able to sleep on the plane, and it was finally hitting her, but before sleep, there was food. She placed an order with the airline so she could get a bigger meal than the measly portions they usually gave out—and once Ryoka finished eating, she felt lethargic. She asked for a blanket and bunched up a corner of it to use as a pillow.

And just her luck, a musical chime rang through the cabin and the pilot warned them of oncoming turbulence. Heaving a sigh, she turned up her calming smooth jazz playlist and hoped that it would be gentle enough to help rock her to sleep.

It was not gentle in the slightest.

She killed more time with her game console until the turbulence went away, and ended up staying awake for another two hours. Now she was getting grumpy because whenever she was about to fall asleep, the plane would startle her with its bumps.

When she did fall asleep, finally, she was like Jake in Big Ben’s car hours before. She slept like a brick.

Ryoka woke up with a start. It was odd waking up to a feeling of weightlessness only to be immediately pressed into the seat. She didn’t even remember the flight attendants making sure the seatbelt was on because she dozed right back to dreamland.

The rough landing of the plane and her dream made for an odd awakening when in tandem. She felt disturbed and uncomfortable as she had a dream about a kidnapping that happened a few years prior. She was eight at the time. Now she was fifteen, seven years had passed. Ryoka had been traumatized ever since the incident and developed a phobia of men, the official term being called androphobia. In the past, she couldn't stand to be near men without feeling severe anxiety. The slightest  _ touch _  of one made her feel nauseous—that was when it first developed.  _ Now _ she had gotten over it quite a bit. Though to deal with her problem she started cross-dressing.

Dressing as a boy gave her more confidence, and she could make contact with the gender, but still felt ill if the contact was initiated by them. As a girl though, she could talk to men but not touch them.

The only people that she was completely fine with were her brother, Jake, Will, and the couple she stayed with, Lee and James.

They were like her second American family. Jake and Will were her best friends who helped her through a lot, including helping her get over most of her trauma.

They were a dance group, the three of them. They called themselves the Dancing Straw Hats. They wore Vietnamese straw hats and a variety of matching outfits as their costumes—it was their gimmick—along with black face masks and gloves to cover their skin to look identical.

It was a mix of their cultures. They were all Asian. Ryoka was Japanese, Jake was Vietnamese, and Will was half Chinese. The two had darker skin tones that were a bit of a contrast to hers, not to mention that they all had an average height at about five feet with her being the one to bring down the average. They were all shorter than the average height, but they both stood taller than her. Short seemed to run strong in the Echizen veins as she stood at a measly... erm,  _ proud _  four foot nine and a half.

The kidnapping encouraged her to get some form of self-defence training in, and her parents were all over it. They brought her to her uncle and his wife who both ran a martial arts dojo—and they were also the people that she stayed with while she lived there. It taught multiple martial arts, but she mainly learned taekwondo and some boxing. That's where she first met Jake and Will. They were adamant about becoming friends despite her trying to actively distance them. After becoming friends, they introduced her to free running, also known as parkour. It was a good way of training for tennis since she could only hit the wall or join the tennis team at her schools every spring since it was a seasonal club. 

They found out about her gender when her wig came off in a sparring match between Jake and herself. They were shocked but were reasonable enough to ask about it before freaking out. Ryoka thought that they would stop talking after that, though they just said that yes, while it was a surprise, they still considered her their best friend.

She was just glad that no one else was around at the time.

Soon after, they got inspired by street performers and started their dance group. Jake and Will had lots of dance experience, while Ryoka only took classes as a child, but made up for the lack of experience with her rhythmic sense that came from music. They made up their own dance style and started street performing.

Shaking herself from her thoughts when the larger man in front of her was finished getting his overhead luggage, she got hers and left the plane. It took ten minutes to get to the receiving area for the bags, and another twenty for the bags to get on the conveyor. Lugging her bags consisting of one suitcase and an instrument case—it was a bit of a hassle to organize how she would carry it—she made way to the go train.

She was glad to be back in Japan and went off to the tournament that her father signed her up for. A lady named Ryuzaki would be picking her up at the venue for the competition, so thankfully she remembered what trains she was supposed to get on.

“Ah! Wait for  _ just _ a second!” Ryoka waddled down the stairs as fast as she could and once on flat ground, she sprinted into the train and barely made it.

Bumping into someone, she immediately apologized and found an empty spot.

“Excuse me, young man, you dropped your cap,” a stern-looking old man held out a plain black hat to her with a smile.

“Huh?” Ryoka pat her head, “Oh! Thank you, Oji-san. That’s very kind of ya!” She grinned and put it back on, “I wouldn’t have noticed.” She moved her bags to let him sit down.

“Looks like you have quite the handful.”

Ryoka sighed and leaned into her tennis bag that was on her lap, “Yeah, I just got off a twelve-hour flight, and I’m heading to a competition.”

“Oh, tennis I presume?” He chuckled when Ryoka looked surprised.

“How’d you know?”

“My grandson plays it, and I recognized the type of bag you were carrying. Your attire also hints to it.”

Ryoka looked at herself. She wore a loose deep blue hooded sweater that was tied on her waist with a black t-shirt that had one asymmetrical vertical blue stripe, and her pants consisted of plain dark grey jogging pants—they were fantastic for the flight. Her shoes were also sporty sneakers, but people wore sneakers all the time regardless.

“I s’pose it does.”

“You want to become a pro?”

“Well…” Ryoka frowned thoughtfully, tilting her head side to side, “ _ yeah _ , eventually. Right now, I just want to have fun with it. I train professionally to get ready for it but don’t take matches as seriously as I should. I’m scared that if I start to care too much about winning, I’ll lose the ability to have fun doing it.”

The man nodded sagely, “That’s a good outlook. I wish my grandson could learn something from you, he takes after his father and I a little  _ too _ strongly.”

Ryoka laughed, “My brother’s the same. I apparently sucked all the fun outta my mother before he got the chance to get some because he came out with both the humour and social skills of a rock.” Ryoka snorted when she pictured a rock with Ryoma’s face.

The man chuckled, “My grandson doesn’t talk much. If you don’t mind me asking, what kind of training do you tennis players go through? He went through rehab recently, and I would just like to know some of the risks.”

“Just like any sport, the risks come from improper training and natural accidents. Tennis is not very injury-inducing, but if you don’t have adequate muscle training, you can injure ligaments in your arm. Tennis elbow is quite common,” she grabbed her elbow and traced where the ligament would be. “There’s also precautions for knee and foot issues since it’s a heavy running sport. Every once in a while, I use ankle weights to build stamina and help with weight distribution while running.” Ryoka laughed, “I actually wore them earlier today and would  _ still _ have them if airport security didn’t take them away. Though, jump rope is much better on the knees.”

The man chuckled, “You know quite a lot about this.”

Ryoka grinned, “Yeah, I want to study sports medicine as a backup career.” There was a  _ ding, _ and an announcement came on that they were approaching another stop. “Ah, that’s my stop! It was nice talking to you, sir!” She fumbled around and got all her bags together, “Have a good day!” She nodded with a slight bow—a custom that America never entirely got rid of—and exited the train.

The man smiled, “Nice kid, that boy. A little all over the place, but nice.” He hefted himself up and followed the path she went on. Apparently heading to the same destination.

**• • • • • •**

Hurrying over to another train stop, she got onto the train that would take her to her destination. She set her stuff down and sat down, waiting until it took off. After her, a group of older teenagers came in and sat right in front of her. They were loud and chatty, but she was used to that. She didn’t notice a girl sit down beside her on the other side of her luggage and glance at her occasionally.

_ Ryoma? _

Just before the doors closed, the old man from before sat down in a designated row for elders and the disabled. Ryoka saw him and waved to him with a smile. Then, when the train took off, she popped her earbuds in and listened to some electro swing for the shorter train ride. It would only take about fifteen to twenty minutes to get there. She closed her eyes and tapped her foot to the beat.

Later in the ride, the boys in front of her started to get more out of hand. Ryoka could tell because she could hear them through her music. She only opened her eyes when her luggage moved. Looking to her side, she saw a girl flinch, and looked over to see the cause.

One of the groupies had their racquet out and was  _ swinging it. _ Ryoka hadn’t felt this angry in awhile, and her eyes narrowed dangerously. The fucker was smirking. She  _ knew _ that he knew, and the guy was playing ignorant of it.

“ _ That’s _ the eastern grip.”

“Excuse me?” Ryoka didn’t have the energy to try and be nice to them, but tried to be polite anyway, “but can you  _ not _ ?”

The guy scoffed, “I’m not hurting anybody twerp, mind your own business,” and after that, he just continued where he left off.  "Yeah, so this is how you use the western grip. You can tell because it's like shaking someone's hand, it's used  _ mainly _  for slices.” He started swinging again, and it was even  _ closer _ to the poor girl’s face. Ryoka growled through grit teeth.

"Oh, wow Sasabe that's expected of the son of a pro!"

“Yeah, you really gotta respect the skills that they work hard for.”

“A  _ Pro _ , huh?” Ryoka crossed her arms, looking up at him dismissively, “Hard to believe. You think a  _ professional _ would teach their kid how to  _ act _ professionally.” Ryoka stood up and looked up at the guy with a dark expression, “Now  _ stop _ .”

The guy, who was established as Sasabe, tilted his head in mock confusion, “Stop what?”

Ryoka deadpanned, “Okay, now you’re either playing the oblivious card, or you’re just  _ stupid _ .” Ryoka shrugged and smirked, “Besides, you got the terms reversed. You were just doing the eastern grip, so I’m leaning more to the idiot side.”

It took a second for Sasabe to fully process what was said. "Mind repeating that you fucking shrimp!?!" he shouted and went to point his racquet at her but fumbled and dropped it. He scoffed and proceeded to pick the racquet off of the ground.

Ryoka couldn't help herself. The guy had such an attitude and it made her want to mess with him.

" _ Congratulations _ !” Ryoka started clapping lightly, “That's the  _ correct _ western grip!" She smiled brightly and it was clearly mocking, the sarcasm was not unheard, "That  _ handshake _  grip you were talking about was actually the  _ eastern _  grip." She shrugged, "Well, I guess it's an easy mix-up—for a  _ beginner _ ."

"Wha—what did you say brat?!" Anger began to cloud his judgment, because he lashed out and grabbed the collar of her shirt, roughly yanking her up to his level.

Ryoka looked up and grinned, and putting her hands up in the universal mercy symbol, she blurted, "Well if you don't know that much about tennis, I  _ could _  teach you! Hmm... though that's only if you actually  _ want _  to get better," her grin was still there, and it made the taunt that much worse.

"Hey watch your mouth! I'm older than you shrimp. Respect your seniors! I—"

She interrupted him before he could continue, eyes glinting with irritation. "You have to  _ earn _ respect. Respect starts with integrity, and I don’t see  _ any _ of that in you,” she almost snarled. “If that’s too big a word for you, it can be defined as strong morals. It’s ethics. To do what’s good,  _ not _ bad. Swinging a racquet on a train and  _ intentionally _ making it that each time you almost hit this girl in the face, is  _ not. Morally.  _ **_Right_ ** _! _ ” This time she actually did snarl, and the hand holding onto her shirt gripped harder. “Now, if you let go, this never happened.”

"You little piece of  _ shit _ !” He wound up for a punch, and before his friends could stop him, Ryoka pushed the hand away by his wrist while loosening the grip on her shirt with her right. Just as she landed on the balls of her feet, the train’s doors opened.

She swiftly gathered her bags and with one more overly kind smile to the group, she said, “And please, try not to repeat the same mistake twice. Sorry for the disturbance!” Once out of the way, she sighed shakily. Taking her necklace out from under her shirt, she held onto it and counted to ten to calm herself, feeling anxiety crawling through her. “It’s okay.  _ I’m okay _ .”

Once she left, the other astonished people on the train started to file out.

"C-come on Sasabe, hurry up this is also our stop!" One of his friends said as the doors started to close.

By the time he got off, Ryoka was well out of their sight.

"Damn where are those tennis courts dad was telling me about..." Ryoka mumbled to herself as she looked at the various exit signs.

“U-um, ex… excuseu me? Ohayo, uh, watashi wa vi-vidio o motte imasu.”

Ryoka tilted her head in confusion,  _ is this guy having a stroke?  _ She quirked a smile at her own humour. The guy was a foreigner and was fumbling over his Japanese, he had the meaning down pat and she understood what he said, so she had to give him props to that, though he was really nervous.

She decided to give him a bit of a break. “ _ Hi!” _ She started talking in English, assuming that it was his language, “You speak English? If not, I know a wee’ ‘lil bit of French.” After all, what if the guy was from Canada and lived in Quebec? “Je ne connais pas beaucoup le français, mais Je peux essayer.”

“Oh, that’s good to know. I can understand Japanese, like reading and writing, but have a hard time pronouncing words—and I’m an English speaker. Never paid attention in French class, so I don’t know what you said,” the guy chuckled.

“Oh, cool. So you said something like,  _ I have a video _ , right?”

“Yes, I wanted to let you know that I recorded the incident on the train just in case it got out of hand.  would it be alright it if I used the video in a school project? I’ll have to upload it to YouTube for the assignment, but it shouldn’t get a lot of attention.”

“Ah, sure, sure, that’s fine.” Ryoka gave her approval, “What’s the project for if you don’t mind me askin’?”

“I’m in the Developmental Service Worker program and we have to do a group presentation on non-violent crisis intervention.”

“Ah, College student, huh? You look younger than one.”

The guy laughed, “I can say the same to you.”

Ryoka grinned, “Well, thank you for asking for my consent, it’s appreciated. Now, I gotta run!”

“See ya kiddo!”

“I ain't no kid!”

As she jogged off to the exit at the other side of the station, she ended up bumping into a girl. She had long brown hair past her waist in two long braids and she wore a school uniform that looked familiar to Ryoka.

"Oh my gosh, I'm sorry," she bowed in apology without even looking to see who she hit. When she straightened, she recognized Ryoka, "Oh, you're the boy that saved me on the train!"

“Why yes, hello it is I!” Ryoka bowed gentlemanly

The girl giggled into her hand, “Hi, I’m Sakuno. I-I would like to thank you for helping me out!”

“It was no problem, the guy needed to get put in his place anyways. Dude should have gotten his ego knocked down a few pegs from that—And I’m Ryota! Nice to meet ‘cha.”

"Are you headed to the tennis courts? You have a racquet bag," Sakuno gestured to Ryoka’s luggage.

"Yup," Ryoka smiled, jumping to shift the bag on her back, "I'm in a tournament—one that I’ll be late to if I can’t find where the courts are.”

"Ah, let me think…” Sakuno tilted her head, trying to remember, “the tennis courts are outside of the west exit."

"Thanks!" Ryoka waved and jogged off in a hurry.

Now Sakuno just had to wait for her grandmother. She sat down at a small fast food chain inside the station, and five minutes later, her grandmother met up with her. She put the waste in the garbage and approached the older lady, “Hello, Oba-san.”

"Ah, Sakuno, there you are. We have to hurry, the courts are this way."

"Wait... weren't they the other way?" She faltered in her step and pointed to the other exit, face paling.

"No, it's over here, outside of the east exit."

"Come on Sakuno, we're going to miss Ryota-kun’s matches!"

She was in so much of a panic that her grandma's words almost went in one ear, and out the other.

_ Wait… Ryota’s? _

“Oh no… I gave him the wrong directions!”

**• • • • • •**

Ryoka looked around frantically and asked  _ another _  stranger for guidance. The girl earlier had given her the wrong directions, and she was starting to get frustrated. When she finally got to the place, Ryoka ran into the registry to see if she could still sign in, but alas, it was too late. She didn't know what to do so she looked for a vending machine for something to drink—maybe they had that Fanta her brother was obsessed about.

Ryoka also found a vending machine that served sandwiches. It was odd because there was one next to it that had tennis balls in them. She mumbled through the last bite of her sandwich, “Japan really is the place for convenience, isn’t it?”

That's when she overheard a conversation.

"Hey Sasabe, you wanna' warm up with me?"

"Sure, my match is coming up soon."

Ryoka grinned, deciding to butt in, "Oi!” She shouted and flailed an arm since they were a bit further away, “You learn your grips yet?" Ryoka quickly ate the last bite of her sandwich and tossed her stuff in the trash before running up to them. "Hmm... Well, I guess it's only been an hour, so I guess that I'll cut you  _ some _  slack."

"Oh, it's the kid. Are you here for a match? You  _can't_  be fifteen." One of Sasabe's friends stated, apparently not thinking that she was their age from her short stature and _stunningly_ young looks.

"Well let's just say that I'm more than your average player..." She put her hands on her hips, giving the group an exaggerated grin, and bragged with good humour. She paused, blinking almost owlishly as she just processed the last line he said, "Well fuck you too! I  _ am _ _ so _  fifteen!"

Eyebrows shot up in shock and eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"There’s no way you're fifteen, you look like a twelve-year-old!" they laughed.

Ryoka growled and narrowed her eyes, "You want to repeat that?" she asked heatedly. "Consider it a favour that I didn’t let you commit a felony on the train—because I  _ could _ have taken that punch.”

"Get on the court. You'll be my warm-up match,  _ shrimp _ , " Sasabe spat with venom, not wanting a brat to trash talk him.

“Alrighty.” Ryoka happily got moving to the closest unused court. She hadn’t played a match in a few days and really wanted to play.

She was having tennis withdrawals.

Ryoka barged the rusty gate open and hopped over the net with room to spare. She set her bags down on the bench and grabbed her racquet. She was tired and stiff, but still full of energy. Sitting on a plane for twelve hours would do that to people. Ryoka warmed up by stretching and doing sprints back and forth on the court.

“Ah, there you are Ryota! Sorry it took so long to find you, I ran into an old friend of mine.”

“Are you…?” Ryoka had to pause and think, but she still couldn’t remember the woman’s name. They once had a skype call so she would know who to look for, but Ryoka was terrible putting names to faces. “Sorry, I can’t recall your name. Dad’s talked about you a lot though.”

“Oh? And what did Nanjiro have to say?”

“That you were a crazy old bat, the monster haunting his youth,” Ryoka blurted out honestly, “But to me, you sounded amazing. Anybody who heckles my ol’ dad-o is good in my books.”

The older woman burst out into laughter, “Oh, that’s great Ryota. I’m Ryuzaki Sumire,” she put out her hand.

“Ryuzaki?” Ryoka grinned, thinking of the perfect nickname for the lady, “Alrighty Dragon-lady, well I’m Ryota!” She also put her hand out and they shared a firm handshake.

“I know that—and Dragon-lady?” She raised a quizzical eyebrow, “Really?”

“Heehee,” Ryoka grinned and rubbed the back of her head. “Ah, well I gotta finish teaching this guy his lesson.”

“Lesson?”

“Oh! I can explain!” Sakuno started from the beginning on the train as Ryoka continued sprinting back and forth.

Meanwhile, Sasabe was just cracking his neck and talking to his buds. He didn’t bother to warm up.

"But Sasabe, your match is in…” he looked at his phone for the time, “ _ fifteen  _ minutes."

"Don't worry, it'll be quick," he smirked to Ryoka.

"Yeah, you bet it will be," Ryoka said confidently, hopping in place to warm her legs up, "It'll be a quickie  _ just _ the way your sock likes it." She had the satisfaction of seeing his face flush red in both anger and embarrassment. She also heard two loud snorts from behind her.

_ You know what, I  _ **_like_ ** _ that taunt. I’ll file that one away for future use. _

"Ryota!  _ Language _ !" Ryuzaki chastised. Thankfully her granddaughter didn't get it with how confused she looked.  _ Hopefully, she'll never get it. _

The older man from on the train wiped a tear from his eye from laughing, “Ah, that kid sure has a sense of humour.” He hasn’t laughed  _ that _ hard in a long time. The man was on a bench just beside the court, waiting for his grandson.

“I apologize that I’m late, grandfather. The wait was longer than anticipated.” He paused, noticing that his grandfather's face looked flushed. “Are you alright?”

“Ah, no worries Kuni, I just had a good laugh. I’ve been entertained by this young boy.”

Glancing over to the courts, he saw that a match was just getting underway. He assumed that he was talking about the short kid on the court who seemed to be a junior high student. “Are you ready to have Lunch?”

“Yes, but I would like to observe this match first.”

_ Odd. Grandfather isn’t usually that interested in tennis. _

He turned to watch and saw the younger boy return a ball that almost hit his face.

“Ey, that’s a low blow!” Ryoka shouted indignantly.

Sasabe smirked sadistically, “All’s fair in tennis!”

Ryoka returned again, setting up for the next shot. “Then I’ll show you a  _ low blow _ !”

There was a high-pitched yelp as Sasabe jumped and barely avoided a shot that bounced by his foot. If he didn’t move he would have been out of the game, for his family jewels would have been badly bruised.

He heard his grandfather chuckle as the boy cackled.

“Now dance for me, maggot!”

**• • • • • •**

As was almost unanimously expected, Ryoka obliterated Sasabe. She won 6-0 only giving up three points at the beginning, beating him almost entirely with her serves. The guy had been playing dirty with the self-judgment game and counted any shot on the line as an out.

_ Playing dirty can be really fun! _

Ryoka jogged up to the net, "Aww, it's okay buddy—if you practice regularly maybe you can become a coach for grade-schoolers," she consoled him. He just shot her a dirty look and left the courts with a huff.

"Echizen!" Ryuzaki yelled "It's time to go! You need to get your school uniform. We would have watched the tournament, but as you’re not in it now, we’re leaving.”

" _ Awww _ , but I haven't had any  _ fun _  yet!" Ryoka pouted with a whine, “That was only child’s play.”

Ryoka noticed a familiar person behind the fence across the tennis court, it was the old man. She grinned and waved hello.

Then she noticed that beside him was another person. From what she could see, the guy had brown hair and glasses. He was tall too, but other than that he looked completely average. He wore a grey t-shirt and dark brown shorts. A grin found it's way onto her face when she saw what he was holding. A tennis bag.

She found her victim.

"Hey! Yeah, you! The guy with the glasses beside Oji-san!" Ryoka called out to him, flailing her arm around excitedly to get his attention, "Wanna' play a short match?"

He looked confused that she was calling out to him, and glanced to his grandfather who was sitting on the bench behind him to see if he would approve. With the nod, he turned to face her again, "Alright, I have some time before I have to leave."

"Ok, great! Dragon-lady, can I play a match with him?" Ryoka asked with enthusiasm.

Ryuzaki sighed, the girl had the nerve to ask  _ him _  of all people for a match. "Fine but only a three-set match. That's all. Then we have to go, you hear?"

"All- _ right _ !" Ryoka cheered, fist pumping into the air with a jump. Little did she know that she royally screwed herself over by picking  _ him _ of all people.

Next thing they knew, the match was over. Ryoka had lost, the tall guy had her beat three games to one. The game was intense, and Ryoka was dead tired by the end of the match. She hadn't blown off all her steam with the match with Sasabe, so she ran and bounced around like a madman. She didn't think she'd play again for the rest of the day anyways—though she still had to do her workout... Maybe she would skip it for the day and do the basic swings that she was tweaking to her style.

"Now  _ that _ ," she huffed, "was a good game." She quickly regained her breath, "So, what's your name?" Ryoka asked as she put her hand out with a grin. “Oh!” she quickly brought her hand back and wiped the sweat off onto her sweater before putting it back out again, “sorry—sweaty hands.”

"Tezuka Kunimitsu," he answered and shook her hand. She raised an eyebrow and frowned in thought,  _ that name seems familiar _ , and now that she had a good look at him he looked  _ really _  familiar.  _ Have we met before? _  And  _ damn _  he was tall, the top of her head just barely reached his shoulders.

Tezuka was a bit confused at the expression the boy was making, and during the handshake he noticed something.  _ His hands are quite soft—what lotion does he use? He reminds me of Ryoma, though he looks more... feminine. Androgynous would be a better fitting term. _

“Kunimitsu then?” When his eyes widened, she knew she said something wrong, “Oh—wait! Sorry, sorry, I retract that, it’s Tezuka, right? I’m still getting used to the first-name, last-name intro reversal.”

Tezuka calmed himself and now felt a little embarrassed, “Have you come from overseas?”

Now Ryoka felt there was another subtle question under that. Something roughly along the lines of,  _ but aren’t you Japanese? _

“Is that a trick question?” Ryoka asked rhetorically and continued, “Well, the simpler answer would be yes, I guess? Sorry, I made your question more complicated than you intended.”

Tezuka was a bit overwhelmed but was used to it from some of the rowdier club members.

"Hey, Ryota! It's time to go!" Ryuzaki shouted from behind the fence. They were on a bit of a time schedule.

"Oh yeah! Sorry, but I gotta go! Thanks for the match! If I see you again I'll ask for another one and avenge my loss!" She bolted after the retreating figures of the Ryuzaki.

_ Oh, he even has the same attitude as Ryoma, though not to the extent of his _ —though,  _ their personalities are on opposite sides of the spectrum. _  He chuckled when he thought that. That woman with them, it was Ryuzaki-sensei. He wondered what he had to do with her. Next thing he knew, he was all alone standing on the court.

_ He is skilled. If he hadn't been as stubborn as he was, he could have taken more than one game off of me. He's at least at our regular's level _ . Tezuka was looking forward to when they would meet again.

“Kuni, you must be hungry after that match.”

Tezuka left the court and met back up with his grandfather, a small smile on his face, “Yes. Quite.”

**• • • • • •**

Ryoka looked around the school she was going to attend starting in a few days. It was enormous! Her high school was probably a third of the size of this school. But then again this was an academy, not some regular high school. 

"Hey, um, Ryota, those were both great matches," Sakuno complimented Ryoka's playing. She hadn’t seen such an all-over-the-place tennis style before.  _ I can’t believe the captain was there, and he played well against him! I… I should have greeted him! _

"Thank you! Erm... Sakura was it?" Ryoka was horrible with names. She  _ had _ put effort in trying to get better with them, even if it didn't help all that much. Playing all those memory games served no purpose other than to help her realize that he had a talent with memory games and recognizing patterns, but not names. 

"Sakuno," she corrected with a small smile.

“Sorry, sorry, I’m bad with names.” Ryoka smiled, a bit embarrassed, “I’ll probably remember it properly after a week or two—though I can’t guarantee it.”

“No, it’s alright Ryota-san,” Sakuno fiddled with a braid of her hair nervously. “I am not that great with names myself.”

"Okay Ryota, come here. Sakuno, wait outside of the room please." Ryuzaki fished out her keys and opened the door, beckoning Ryoka in as she entered.

Sakuno nodded and blushed. She correctly assumed that Ryoka was going to change.

Ryuzaki then started rummaging through boxed with the uniforms in them, looking for the right sizes. Ryoka looked around in curiosity. There were stage lights and props all over the place, it looked like this was just a general storage room.

" _ E-chi-zen _ ."

"Hmm?" Ryoka looked up from her object of focus—a fluffy polar bear mascot costume—to Ryuzaki and saw her smiling creepily. Then she saw what was held in her hands, "Nuh-uh! Hell, to the no!" Ryoka immediately clipped, refusing the unspoken offer without a beat.

"Oh, but you would look so  _ cute _ !" Ryuzaki did a hugging motion and squealed intentionally, obviously teasing her.

" _ No _ , and I’m locking that answer in! I'm wearing the men’s uniform and  _ that's _  that. Final answer I say‼" Ryoka said stubbornly, crossing her arms with a petulant huff.

"Ok, ok I get it. Just hurry up and get changed, I want to see if this size would fit you." Ryuzaki tossed her the uniform, “It’s the smallest size we have, so if it’s too big go complain to someone else.”

Ryoka frowned, grumbling out “Rude,” jokingly and changed into the pants first. They were the perfect width but the bottoms would have to be hemmed as they were still too long. In order to wear it the bottoms had to be cuffed and it just made the pants look stupid. The most dire problem would be the shirt. Ryoka needed a thick material that wouldn't show her compressing tank-tops. She was naturally flat as a board and not curvy at all, but they reassured her. She used to use ace bandages until she put them on too tight one time and fainted from lack of air. It was really hard to breathe with the non-flexible bandages. It was really the stupid and lazy way to go about it.

_ That was really dumb of old me, I shouldn’t have ignored the warnings. _

She frowned when she couldn't find any other kind of material for the shirts. It was all the same white dress shirt fabric, and it was a problem because it showed through. She went a size larger and nodded in satisfaction when she moved around to test it out. The sleeves were too long and it was a bit lose around her shoulders, but it didn’t catch or feel tight when she moved.

_ Who cares, no one will notice _ , she thought. She would just have to roll up the sleeves or shorten them if it looked too stupid. Ryoka would also have to get some skin coloured compression tanks. Even if she went out in one of the compression tanks and pants nobody said anything about them looking weird in the states, so she figured that she was passable enough as a guy.

She even had one that was made for swimming!

Glancing at another box of clothes, she saw that it was the winter uniform. There were some options, and she would definitely be going for the thicker cotton sweater vest, while the pants stayed the same.

After Ryuzaki gave Ryoka her approval, she changed back into her original clothes.

“Ey, are there any bags around here? I sorta left mine in your car.” Ryuzaki tossed Ryoka a cloth bag that was on the ground. “Thanks! It’s a little dirty, but I’ll be washing them anyway so, eh.” She folded and put a few pairs of uniforms in the bag. “How much will this be costing?”

Ryuzaki waved a hand, “It’s covered in the tuition, though if you need to get replacements or extras then it’s out of pocket.”

“Good to know.”

Since they were in the school, Ryuzaki thought it would be a good idea to give her a brief tour of the grounds.

“ _ Awesome _ ,” Ryoka looked up in awe at the size of the music rooms.

“Seigaku has pride in their arts and academic departments,” Ryuzaki explained.

“And your tennis club,” Ryoka added.

“And our tennis clubs,” Ryuzaki parroted blandly.

Now at the end of the impromptu tour, Ryuzaki led Ryoka to the tennis courts. When they arrived, they saw a student who was hitting the ball against a wall with his racquet. He wore a yellow t-shirt with dark blue shorts with a sweatband. His black hair was short and really spiky, complemented with eyes that were just as black.

"Momo! What are you doing here? It's Sunday, there's no practice." Ryuzaki shouted at the teenager.

"Ah!" he was startled enough to drop the ball. After picking it up, he jogged over to them, "Ryuzaki-sensei, gomen I just felt like practising and all the public courts are full." Momo, as Ryuzaki called him, apologized and regained his breath. "And who's this?" He looked down to see the person, but their hat and hood covered most of their face from his vantage point above them. At first glance, he thought it was Ryoma.  _ No, it can’t be. If Ryoma was twelve again maybe. _

"Hello, it’s nice to meet ya," Ryoka nodded her head in greeting and took a step behind Ryuzaki, slightly uncomfortable with the guy being so close. She was getting tired from all the excitement and felt burnt out, not really in the best state to deal with her phobia.

"I was just showing him around the neighbourhood when I forgot I left something here," Ryuzaki lied through her teeth. Well, sort of. It was a half-truth.

"I’m about to leave anyways, Echizen and I were going to meet up,” Momoshiro waved and left. 

"Well let's get you home—but since you’re here, I’ll get you to help me out with some errands. You can help with some heavy lifting, can’t you?”

Ryoka yawned and cracked her neck, “Sure.”

**• • • • • •**

About an hour later, Ryuzaki dropped Ryoka off at her house. “Thanks for the ride, I a—aaaah… appreciate it,” she had an enormous yawn.

Ryuzaki chuckled, “No problem Ryota, you sound like you had a rough sleep.”

“Yes, a  _ very _ turbulent sleep.”

This time Ryuzaki barked a laugh, “I’ll see you later, kid,” she put a hand on Ryoka’s head and ruffled her hair. To her surprise and fright, it went lopsided.

“Damn, I knew I should have put it on with more bobby pins.” Ryoka frowned and shook her head, trying to get the rest of the pins out.

“What about a bald cap?”

Ryoka finished and combed her hands through her shoulder length hair, suddenly feeling a bit gloomy, “They’re a hassle to put on.”

“Well, you better figure something out or someone’s going to end up knocking that thing off.”

“Yeah,” Ryoka looked at the wig in her hands. “Well, thanks for all the help,” she bowed her head and smiled—and it didn’t look like the normal bright smile that she wore just before. It was dull. Ryoka waved and turned to her door.

Ryuzaki didn’t know what to think of it.

Her father was ecstatic when she opened the door, "Welcome back  _ Ryoka _ ~" Nanjiro ran up to hug her, “It’s just not the same talking through a screen!”

Ryoka got irritated and punched him in the gut. She had gotten used to her father and brother touching her, but it still irritated her. Immensely.  _ Her father especially _ . She  _ knew _  he was a pervert. Ryoka was alright with people she knew—most of the time—and she was fine if she was the one who innated the contact, but if it was unexpected and she didn't see it coming, it most certainly affected her.

The outcome was her feeling dizzy and nauseous or depending on the situation, an anxiety attack. It was really fifty-fifty.

It didn’t help that she was already in a bad mood. She always felt down when her wig was off.

"Uh, well, I'm home?" Ryoka was sheepish when her father looked up to her from the floor with tears in his eyes. "Where's mum?"

"Oh, don't be so cold Ryoka!" Nanjiro started weeping overdramatically on the floor. He dropped the act, and stood up, dusting off his clothes, "Rinko-chan had to go to Okinawa for a case."

"I thought she retired?"

"Sort of, she still takes them every so often. She won't be back until Friday night."

“Is Nanako home?”

“No, she’s still at College.”

“What about Ryoma?”

“Out with a friend.”

“Oh.” Then she remembered that Momo guy saying that they were going to hang out. “Well, I’ll throw some dinner on then. Just let me put my stuff in my room first.”

"Oh, Ryoka-ch _ yan _ ~!" as her father said that, a vein popped on her forehead. She wanted to hit him  _ so _  badly and settled for bopping him on the head.

She frowned and pointed at him—with two fingers, because one was rude—and narrowed her eyes, “No dinner if you keep this up dad-o.”

After literally tossing her bags into her room, she didn’t even get a good look at it, went back to the kitchen, though not without falling down the stairs. Fluffy socks on hardwood stairs did not mix well believe it or not. 

Pounding chicken flat, she breaded it with flour, eggs, and breadcrumbs before frying it up in a pan. Throwing some frozen veggies into a bowl, Ryoka put them in the microwave while the Schnitzel fried.

“Ey, Dadd-o, foods on the table!”

Nanjiro got up from the veranda and scratched his scruffy chin. He looked at the food quizzically, “What’s this?”

“Schnitzel.”

“What’s this… shh-knits-eel? I’ve never heard of it.”

“It’s a German thing. Pounded and breaded meat, this is chicken. I took some creative liberty with the breading. I used some spicy paprika in it, so it’ll be spicy.”

“Oh, so it’s basically tonkatsu.”

“I guess?”

After eating, she got her father to do the dishes since she cooked,  _ I mean, it’s only fair, _ and yawned as she slowly walked up the stairs.

Ryoka did  _ not _ want to fall again, she could feel two bruises forming already, one on the front of her shin, and the other right on her forearm.

When Ryoka arrived in her currently barren room, she changed into baggy pyjamas before looking around. She had a large desk, it took up a fifth of the room, and some cool hovering cubbies for trinkets that went from her window to the corner or the room, and continued over her desk. There was a small closet that the end of her bed was right up against. To get into it, she would have to get onto her bed.

After putting what little clothes she had away, she closed the blinds and got under the covers. Going over the events that occurred that day, she slowly drifted off to sleep, wondering what school would be like in a few days.

_ I hope my all my stuff comes in soon. Some of it's supposed to come in before the end of the week—hopefully. Damn, all of this hoping will get Murphy to get my stuff lost in transit. I should stop. _

**• • • • • •**

**An: Lol, okay, when I went to type Ototo (little brother in Japanese) it wanted to autocorrect it to potato. I should draw Ryoma as a smol potato. xD**

**Anyways, I've heavily redone this, and I hope that it's better—well I'd hope so after I brought it up to my standard after all these years.**

**Feedback is appreciated!**


	2. Chapter 2

Up and at'em, Ryoka was ready to get a good start on her day. Looking at the time, it just struck 7:30, she checked the weather and dressed accordingly. It was going to be a chilly morning with it being 9 ° , but it would warm up in the afternoon. So loose-fitting olive-green cargo pants, a black t-shirt, blue sweater, and a white vest would be her get up for the day.

Feeling a wave of anxiousness and excitement, Ryoka grabbed her necklace to help calm down. The hexagonal opalite necklace was her good luck charm, a gift given to her by her friends. She’s had it for  _ years, _ and it has helped her stay grounded. Whenever she felt uneasy or needed support, she’d hold onto it and take a deep breath.

Getting out of her room, Ryoka went to check up on Ryoma, cracking the door open just enough to see him and Karupin cuddling. She snickered to herself, closing the door silently, and proceeded down the stairs to see her cousin making breakfast.

"Mornin'," Ryoka's words came out muffled with her enormous yawn.

"Good morning Ryoka. Don't you have school today?" Nanako questioned, unsure when she was enrolled to start.

"Nah, that's tomorrow—though I  _ do _ plan to go there in a bit to familiarise myself with the area though. I had a little tour but I never really got to map out the grounds."

"I see, and you do plan on surprising Ryoma right?" Nanako hinted that Ryoka should. No one really knew—she looked pretty and innocent, not really looking like the type—but she had a bit of a devious side to her.

"Ok, I'll do that," Ryoka had a devious smirk plastered on her face. She was imagining what things she should do. Even  _ without _ Nanako's encouragement, she would prank her brother regardless. “It would’ve been fun to scare him awake, but that would ruin the surprise later.”

Nanako laughed into her hand, "By the way, Ryoma's already a regular there."

"Hmm."  _ It's only been about three weeks—or was it a month? I don't remember—since school started and Ryoma's  _ already _ one. Man, he works fast.  _ "Well,  _ then again _ , his pride wouldn't let him rest until he was." She heard a laugh from Nanako come from the living room where she was fixing the couch cushions.

Ryoka ate her traditional Japanese breakfast and went out to the backyard to do a set of warmups that her old coach taught her. She was built for speed and flexibility, and they had made a program to not only round her out but enhance the things he was good at. She stretched and took her time with it— after all, her old coaches saying was, "If you rushed it, you did it wrong."

When she got into her workout, she didn't hear Ryoma shouting "I'm leaving!" as he rushed off to practice with that Momoshiro guy. She had her music on, pumping her to go at a steady rhythm.

After her work out, it was short and intense, she went up to the washroom and cleaned herself of any sweat. Grabbing a bag made for a single racquet, she tossed in a ball and threw it over her shoulder, ready to head off to Seigaku.

The campus was _gigantic_. Her high school in L.A may have been larger in structural size, but the land surrounding it was small, having a single football field surrounded by a track. Seigaku however had a baseball diamond, a football field and at least a dozen tennis courts. Walking further around the perimeter of the school, she found the gymnasium connected to an outdoor hallway— _they_ _even had a pool!_ It would be trouble in the long run, but she'd find a solution when she had to. Eventually she found the tennis courts—and of course they were on the opposite end of the school. Glancing around, she saw no one around the premises.

"Is no one here—?!" she was startled when the bell rung. Huh, she missed their practice. "Hmm, I guess I'll just hit a ball for a bit then..." she unzipped the bag and took out her racquet and ball.

An hour and a half or so later, she stopped rallying and caught the ball when her stomach growled, "I guess it's time for lunch." She left the school grounds and ran back home— _ man, running up that hill is tiring! _ She didn't have her wallet on her so she couldn't really buy anything either. After her lunch, she loitered around for a bit at her house, playing a rhythm game on her ps vita. She yawned and looked at the time, her eyes widened.

"Woah, time sure goes by so fast!" She stuffed her phone into the zipper pockets of her vest, grabbed her tennis bag and ran off. Coming to a halt in the tennis courts, she looked around to find... nothing. She checked the time on her phone and sighed. She had read the time wrong and rushed there for no reason. There was still an hour until classes ended. Sitting down in the shade, she leaned against a tree and got comfortable. Bringing her hood over her head, she yawned and went down for a nap.

**• • • • • •**

With the ring of the school bell, Ryoma got up from his seat and went to the courts faster than he usually would—Ryuzaki said that they'd be doing a special practice and he was low-key looking forward to it. When he got there, he was confused when he saw some of the regulars crowding around a person with a hoodie by a tree.

They were sleeping, and quite soundly if they didn’t react to the chatter.

"Oi, Echizen, you know this guy?" Momo pointed his thumb at the stranger who was  _ somehow _ sleeping soundly. "He looks familiar though..." he held his chin in thought, trying to remember. Understandably, he still couldn't see Ryoka's face.

"No... I don't think so."

Fuji glanced at the others around him—it was only him, Momo and Eiji, Ryoma now too—and was unsure of who would do the job of waking the person up.

"Mmn," they grumbled and moved in their sleep, sliding off the bark and landing on the ground, "Ryoma... Haha," some drool dripped down from the corner of their mouth.

They turned and stared at Ryoma with a variety of creepy looks on their faces.  _ The noise must be getting to him _ , Ryoma shook his shoulder a bit, and they slowly opened their eyes.

"Urm... Where am I?" Ryoka said still in a daze and pushed herself up while rubbing at her bleary eyes.

"Seigaku Gakuen, nya," Eji responded, looking down at her with curiosity. She had grass stuck to her cheek.

Ryoka looked around sleepily from her sitting position. Her eyes widened, and she was suddenly alert, "AH! I remember now."

The group looked at each other, confused, "Remember what?"

"I came here to surprise a certain someone. A certain  _ Chibisuke _ ," she said, hinting to Ryoma. Ryoka had to hold her laughter in or else she would blow her cover. She supposed that it was because of her hair and hood that was covering her eyes that it was going off without a hitch.

"Oi, I only know two people who call me that."

"Whaaat?” Ryoka whined in mock shock, “You don't remember your  _ twin _ ? Oh, Ryoma, my brother, you're too cruel!" Ryoka frowned sadly.

"TWIN?!" Eji and Momo both yelled simultaneously.

"Ryo...ta?" Ryoma asked, eyes widening in shock and surprise when Ryoka put her hood down and fixed her bangs.

"Yup, that's 'a me!" she waggled her fingers in hello with a cheeky grin, "So, you  _ finally _ remembered," she laughed.

"What are you doing here? Aren't you living in L.A?" Ryoma felt out of the loop, he didn't know about this.

"Nope. Not anymore," she got up from the wall, dusting off her shorts. "I've been wanting to come back here for a while—homesick, ya know? —and so I'm back!" She bounded closer to Ryoma and blinked a couple times. There was an awkward silence between the two as she stared up at her counterpart. "You...” she gasped in disbelief at what she saw, “are no longer a chibisuke!!! When did  _ you _ get tall!!!" She was freaking out, Ryoma was about three or four inches taller than her. " _ Traitor _ !"

"Yeah, I grew. While  _ you _ didn't," he pointed a finger down at her. Ryoka made a biting motion and Ryoma, wisely, decided to retract the offending digit.

Eiji gasped, "It's a mini-chibi! A more aggressive mini-chibi!”

"And  _ I _ used to be the taller one too," Ryoka pouted with a sigh, accepting defeat, but she bounced back playfully with, "Ey, so you wanna' have a match? It's been a couple years, hasn't it?"

Ryoma didn't even answer—he just went straight to the courts.

"Eh-heh, I'll take that as a yes." She looked up to the other members that were there, "Uh, is this ok? Where's your leader?"

Eiji snorted, “L-leader? Haha!”

"It's fine." Ryoka looked over to the one who spoke. He had short brown hair, and his eyes were closed at the moment so she couldn't tell his eye-colour. "He's going to make us run laps later anyways since we're not practising yet," Fuji only told the truth. He saw Tezuka walking their way anyway.

“Oh, okay. Good luck with that!” she grinned and trotted over to where her brother went.

Ryoma and Ryoka were getting ready for their match, or rather Ryoka was the one getting ready. Ryoma was just being impatient.

"Oi Ryoma, so you're a regular here,  _ hmm _ ?" she asked as she stretched her back and arms.

"Hai, I don't plan to lose  _ since _ I'm a regular."

"Oh,  _ really _ now?” Ryoka couldn’t help rolling her eyes, “Okay, who's gonna be the ref—or is this a self-judged match?" she wondered as she picked up her racquet off of the ground.

"Doesn't matter."

"Ooh, someone is  _ sassy, _ " Ryoka said tauntingly. She liked getting reactions out of her brother.

"I'm not sassy." Ryoma frowned, and if anyone looked closely enough, they would notice that it was actually him pouting.

"If you're not sassy, then you're  _ assy _ ."

" _ Oi _ , get on with it already!" Momo shouted from outside the courts and stifled his laughter from Ryoka's pun.

"Alrighty then, okay, Ryoma you can serve," she did an overdramatic baseball wind up and pitched the ball to her brother.

When Ryoma caught it, he didn't hesitate and served right away, opening with his twist towards the face. Ryoka hit it dead on and got a return ace. The rest were returned, and short rallies followed.

Ryoka tripped up and missed a ball, giving Ryoma one game.

"Heh," Ryoma smirked as he fixed his racquets strings.

"Did I hear something Chibisuke?" Ryoka said as she served without a jump. She usually did, but her ankle was bugging her, so she wasn’t playing with the vigour she usually had.

Halfway through the game, they took their break. Ryoka was winning two games to one. The regulars didn't notice that Tezuka had been watching, too focused on the twins. Only Fuji knew as the two were talking.

"He's good, isn't he?" Fuji questioned Tezuka, "He isn't showing much skill here, but he's Ryoma's sibling.”  _ He must have more skill than what he’s showing. _

"Yes, he is." He knew from experience, but something was up, Ryoka wasn’t playing the same way she was when he played with her. There was no chaos on her side of the court.

Ryoka got up from the bench and blinked, she paused and narrowed her eyes as she looked quizzically at her foot. “Hm,” rotating her ankle around a couple times, she frowned, "Ah, well... We'll have to finish this at another time Ryoma."

"Why?"

"Foot. My foot. I, uh, took a nap on it wrong apparently. I  _ knew _ it was bugging out on me."

Ryoma sighed, "We'll do it another day at home then, I'm holding you to it."

"I would not expect any less, my ototo," she crossed her arms and nodded sagely. Ryoma shook his head with an exasperated sigh.

Ryoka frowned, the sweat at the back of her neck was bugging her, she was in need of a towel. It didn't help that with the wig she overheated more easily either, but it was something she had to deal with. Ryoka exited the courts and went to her bag, only noticing now that they both had gathered a group of spectators. She wasn't like her brother who could expertly ignore people, so when she made eye contact, she smiled. That's when she noticed Tezuka off to the side in the shadow of the building.

"OH! You're that guy from the city courts a few days back!" She shouted, pointing—with two fingers since it wasn't as impolite—to Tezuka.

"Do you know him Tezuka?" Fuji was curious, Tezuka didn't get out much, so how did he know Ryoma's sibling?

"Ah, we played a match."

"I was hoping that we'd meet again, I've been wanting revenge for a while now." She cracked her knuckles with a grin, but it faltered when she realized something, "Uh, by a while, I mean a day—but that doesn't change my _burning_ _passion_ to defeat you!"

Fuji smiled,  _ If Kawamura were still here, they would get along just fine. _

"Likewise. You were too stubborn last time. If you played seriously you could have gotten more games off of me."

"Same with you, you weren't even serious.  _ Geeze _ ," Ryoka huffed with a pouty face. "Anywho, shouldn't you guys start practising?"

"Yes, but before that," Tezuka took a breath in. "Twenty laps!" he said as loud as he could without his stoic-ness breaking.

" _ EEHH _ !" The whole tennis team complained in unison as they started to run.

"Ooh-ho, I see a slave driver~," Ryoka said playfully.

"..."

"Well, I have to go now, I'm sure my family's worried. I'll see you guys later," Ryoka started to grab her things.

Tezuka was left in his thoughts overlooking the laps his teammates were doing.

_ Soon? What did he mean by soon? Oh, he must be coming back to see Echizen. He would be a great addition to our team...though I don't know what he can do yet. Wait, do I want him to stay here…? He would certainly keep Echizen under control. _ Tezuka didn't realize that he had been staring at him.  _ He's so short...  _ Tezuka snapped out of his trance when Fuji poked his shoulder and Echizen's brother yelled.

"Oi Ryoma! I'm headin' home! Have fun with your Spartan Captain!"

Tezuka felt his eye twitch at that last comment.

"Tezuka, he catch a nerve of yours?" Fuji smirked as he goaded his captain. Tezuka just ignored the comment even though he heard it quite well.

"Okay, I'll be home soon!" Ryoma tried to yell loudly, but he was out of breath.

Ryoka then ran off waving with a huge grin on her face. Tezuka couldn't help but think that Ryoka's personality naturally made others more positive, similar to Eiji's happy-go-lucky vibe.

_ Ah, that was fun, but man, Nanako's gonna' be worried! I better hurry. _

Ryoka saw a park and couldn't hold back the urge to explore. "A snack wouldn't hurt, right?" she asked herself as she saw a corner store on the other side of the street.

While exploring, she ended up losing track of where she was.

"Where am I? I feel like I've been going in circles. Damn... I've never been this bad with directions before..." She sighed, "I don't know what to do anymore." She went back to the park she found originally and sat down.

"Ugh, I'm so tired," she murmured, feeling her eyes getting heavier and heavier until she eventually dozed off. Ryoka had a nice dream about having a match against Tezuka and winning until it started fading away when she heard a voice.

"You shouldn't sleep here."

Ryoka flailed out an arm, trying to get the person to go away, "Mmm... Five more minutes.”

"No."

Ryoka then felt her shoulder being shaken. She frowned and opened her eyes, yawning. "Mhmm, Tezuka? I was just having a dream about you." She was obviously still half asleep.

" _ What _ ?"

"We were having a match."

"O-oh," he cleared his throat. Ryoka was too sleepy to notice the faint blush on his cheeks.

"Anyways, it's time to get up," he grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "Why were you sleeping here in the first place?"

"Well..." she took a deep breath to calm herself, her heart rate spiked in panic when he helped her up. She rubbed the back of her neck nervously, "I was going home, but I was hungry and went to a corner store. I wanted to get to know the neighbourhood better so I walked around and ended up getting lost. So, I took a break and sat down here. I’m still quite jet-lagged, so I guess I dozed off.”

"Here, I'll assist you."

Ryoka yawned again, this one long and large, “Really?” She smiled, he was nicer than he looked.

"Yes, so where do you live?"

The smile dropped and was replaced with uncertainty, "... uhh." Tezuka raised an eyebrow and fixed his glasses. "Oh, come on, I just got to Japan yesterday—what can you expect!"

"Any street names or landmarks that are familiar to you?" He asked helpfully.

"I’m not good at remembering street names, but I’m good with landmarks. For one it's on a big hill, has a park near it—I’m pretty sure it’s  _ this _ park—and has one neighbour. It's a traditional house and… oh yeah, my house has a shrine beside it."

"I think I have an idea where it is."

"Oh, thank Kami-sama, you're a lifesaver." She followed Tezuka's lead through the park and eventually they came out at a side she recognized. "This is starting to look familiar now." There was a long awkward silence as they were walking up a hill. She was whistling some tunes and she saw a house, she stopped whistling and read the nameplate.

"Te... zuka..." she didn't even notice Tezuka turning to look at her with surprise.

"Yes?" He replied without thinking.

"Wait, is this your house?" she pointed her thumb towards the general area of it.

"Yes..." Tezuka sounded uncertain.

"Huh, so I guess we're neighbours. Ryoma's probably so late every day that he hasn't noticed."

"I guess so," Tezuka said as she snickered at Ryoma's expense.

"Don't worry, I won't let anyone know where you live without you approving it." Even if she was a trickster and liked causing trouble, she knew some boundaries shouldn’t be crossed. "I know the way now, thanks for walking me, I appreciate it." She smiled and waved, "It's less trouble for you." She also didn't like inconveniencing people.

"No. I'll walk you the rest of the way. You have fallen asleep twice today. I don’t trust you."

"Eehh, but I'm not a little kid," Ryoka said with a fake pout.

Tezuka didn't answer and just continued walking. "Is this it?" He said looking up at the residence. He hadn't gone further up his road before so he never knew what it looked like. It was rather tiring to reach the top since the incline got steeper on the way up before levelling out.

"Yup, it's huge, isn't it? We even have our own tennis court—dad took a liberty and made it himself on the shrine grounds." She perked up when something came to mind, "You want to come in? My dad'll probably want to thank you."

"No, I couldn't intrude like that."

"Alrighty, I won't force ya if you don't want to. Goodnight," she waved while running up the stairs and opened the door. "I'm home!"

"RYOKA! We have been worried sick!" Father and Nanako said in unison.

After about a half an hour of lecturing, Ryoka explained how Tezuka walked her home.

"Well I'm going to bed—I'm going to have a fun day tomorrow so I'll need some rest."

She headed up to her room and got changed into her pyjamas, leaving her suitcase open on the ground, too tired to fully unpack it. "Hopefully my stuff will be here in a week or two," Ryoka mumbled as she flopped into bed and passed out with Karupin curled up against her side.

  * • • • • •



As per usual, Ryoka was quite the early bird—for the time being at least. She got out of bed heard Karupin meow before he moved to her pillow where the covers were warm. “Awe, you’re just so dang cute,” she tucked him in her bed and took a picture with her phone. “Mum and Nanako will like this.”

Ryoka cracked her neck and stretched, “Time to get this day goin’."

She got her father up—much to his discontent—to play a match with her to help wake her up. She lost as usual, but she had fun with her father, which was a rare thing since he usually ruined it by being annoying. He was grumpy from the rude awakening she gave him and it apparently made him more sadistic.  _ If anything, that fact that he was grumpy made him go harder on me… _

After the match, she tended to her hygiene—something that was important to her. She had a shower and got dressed in her uniform, _Seigaku's_ high school division’s male uniform. _Dragon-lady_ _better not switch them, she’d do something like that to spite me while I would change._

“Damn, hopefully I grow into this, I must have switched the sizes by accident.” The blazer that she had was a size or two too big and the sleeves and bottom were too long. The shoulders were fine though, just a little loose. It was a bit warmer out so to keep things breezy she kept the blazer open and kept the first two buttons on her shirt undone and kept the tie loose. Her black compression tank top showed a little, but it wasn’t that odd for people to wear tanks under dress shirts, right?

“Note to self, I need to get some more of these,” she pulled on the elastic in the tank, it was starting getting loose. “I’ll order some in bulk from Underworks.” While she was as flat as a board, they were comfortable and good quality. They were more for reinsurance.

Ryoka brought her favourite opalite necklace up to the light that was shining in through her window. She loved how it changed colours depending on how the light refracted off of it. Smiling to herself, she took to the most time-consuming thing to do in the mornings.

Putting on her wig.

It really did take a lot of effort. First, she tucked it all in a nylon cap and made sure it was held in place with clips and pins, then she put the actual wig on and pinned that in place too. One could never be too sure.

Fixing the styling of it and making sure it still felt real, she nodded to herself, “Alright,” she tested it by ruffling her hair a bit and it didn’t budge, “It’s as stuck as it’s gonna get.”

Her stomach growled, and she rubbed her stomach, “Yeah, I agree. We need some food.”

Ryoka went down for breakfast and had her regular morning conversation with her cousin and the occasional tease about Nanjiro's magazines. She then left for school and as she was leaving she yelled, "Ryoma, get up already or you'll be late for practice!" and heard a loud thump.

"Gah!" She heard him scramble and laughed as she shut the door behind herself.

"Ahh, Ryoma's hilarious." She laughed to herself. Walking down the hill, she noticed a familiar figure ahead. Walking up closer to see who it was, she saw that it was Tezuka.

" _ Hmm, should I talk to him now or no...? _ " she thought aloud, not noticing that she was speaking in English, a habit that would be hard to break, “ _ Nah _ .”

She decided that she wouldn't talk to him as she liked surprising people. Ryoma—her  _ twin _ —didn't even know that she was back in Japan till the day of when she 'visited' him at school, nor did he know she's going to the same school as him. She was evil, pure evil—well at least she thought so. To others, she probably just looked like a prankster.

When she got to school she got a lot of stares as she walked around looking for the principal's office. She didn't mind the stares because they were merely curious,  _ or  _ they just thought Ryoma went into a rebellious phase _. _ Once she got to the principal's office she took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

A conversation stopped as the principal looked at the door, "You may enter,” and she bid goodbye to the person she was talking to on the phone.

"Hello, I’m Ryota Echizen,” Ryoka walked in and nodded her head in a slight bow, “I thank you for doing this for me. I deeply appreciate it.”

"Normally I wouldn’t let this kind of thing pass,” the principal said seriously, her no-nonsense attitude obvious with that perpetually strict face of hers, “but with your circumstances and story…” her frown turned into a sad smile. “I think that it’s about time for the school boards to be more accepting, Ryoka, or Ryota I should be calling you.”

Ryoka’s eyes widened,  _ Does she know? Wow, she’s really nice.  _ The bell then rang signalling everyone to be in class or on their way.

"It is time for you to go to your first-period class. You are in class 1-2, the same homeroom as your brother."

"Thanks!" Ryoka said cheerfully and left the room.

Ryoka looked at her schedule and double checked that she was in front of the right room. Waiting for a second, she knocked on the door and a moment later, she heard the voice of the teacher.

"Alright class, I have a new student to introduce to you."

As he said this Ryoka walked in, hands in pockets and introduced herself, "Yo, I’m Echizen Ryota. I used to live in the U.S due to some personal reasons of which you guys are not privy to. Hmm, what else?” She tapped her foot, tilting her head, “Oh yeah, I am Ryoma's twin. I'll be joining the tennis team." She looked to the teacher, “That’s an alright intro, right?”

The man shrugged, “It was alright I guess. You tried too hard to look cool.”

The class was shocked, Ryoma had a twin.  _ A freaking twin! _ Ryoka was so different from Ryoma who was quiet, arrogant, and stubborn. They started talking among themselves.

“Damn it, I  _ knew _ forcing it would just make me look lame.”

The man shook his head, but he had a smile, "Okay, you'll be sitting beside your brother." Internally he was hoping that she wasn’t going to be too much trouble.

Ryoma stared blankly at his sibling as they sauntered up to sit beside him, "Why didn't you tell me you were transferring here?"

"Well I wanted to surprise you,  _ duh _ ," Ryoka grinned childishly and pat him on his head, she laughed when he rolled his eyes.

"Rude."

"Yes, yes, I know," she waved a hand dismissively at her brother who just sighed in return.

After their little exchange, class finally started. They had history first and Ryoka  _ hated _ history with a passion. She  _ could _ do better in it, but she didn't have an interest in it and therefore she had a hard time remembering the stuff.

Ryoka had a bit of a selective memory. If she was interested in something, like music, drama, and science, she would remember it. The same went for physical activity. If she liked the sport, she would remember what to do, and the forms her body would have to take.

After the class, Ryoka was swarmed with questions and girls, who knew she would be so popular? She wasn’t able to answer all their questions because she had to excuse to go to the washroom. Ryoka took a bit too long because the bell rang and she ended up being late to math class.

Ryoka knocked on the door and slid it open when a familiar voice prompted her to enter. Her face brightened when she saw who it was, “Dragon-lady!”

Ryuzaki shook her head and sighed, hoping that the nickname wouldn’t stick.

“Hey, I didn’t know you were a teacher Dragon-lady.”

“Hush you,” Ryuzaki put a hand on Ryoka’s shoulder and gently nudged her forward, “Now go sit down.”

“Okie-dokie,” she walked to her set beside her brother. When the bell rang she grabbed her bag and left to explore and find somewhere to eat her lunch.

When she saw her brother, she jogged up to him. "Yo!" Ryoka slung an arm around Ryoma's shoulder, startling him a quite a bit.

"Where have you been Ryoka?"

" _ Shhh _ ! I'm Ryota here!” She covered his mouth with her hand. “Wanna eat lunch together?”

He seemed to be weighing his options, “Alright.”

Ryoma walked with his sister to a quiet spot that he usually had lunch at. He rummaged through a plastic bag and took out a yakisoba sandwich.

“That’s not healthy.”

Ryoma paused before his third bite, “Yeah, and?”

“You’ve gotta have a balanced diet,” she took out her lunch box, “Like this! I got a sandwich, veggies, an egg for protein and a pear!” Then she brought out her last item, “and I got milk!”

Ryoka smiled and pat Ryoma on his shoulder before digging in.

Her next class was music—she revived after looking at her timetable—and for that class, she was with the third years. She went up to the third floor, all the way at the other end of the school. She knocked on the door.

"Now class we have a new student to introduce you to. They’re younger than you guys, so please be nice.” The teacher looked to the door and raised her voice, “You can enter now."

"Okie-dokie!" they heard a cheerful voice from behind the door. The door slid open and Ryoka entered. She saw more people from the tennis club, Tezuka and Fuji, and they looked surprised to see her there.

"Heya, I’m Echizen Ryota. I used to live in America due to some personal reasons, though I moved back here ‘cuz I was homesick. Oh, and yes, before you guys ask, I am Ryoma’s twin."

Some people raised their hands from behind their music stands. "What instrument do you play?"

"My main instruments are trumpet and piano, though I've also learned a few others like violin, and tenor saxophone. Flute’s new to me though."

"If you’re in a third-year class, then how much experience do you have?" Fuji asked, curious to know more about Ryoma's twin.

"I've been playing since I was... like, six? So, nine years, but that's only the piano. I've played the trumpet for eight years and the sax for six. I’m trying to learn flute, but I can’t seem to get the embouchure down. I’ve also fiddled around with the euphonium since I figured out it has the same fingerings as trumpet when it’s in treble clef... Anyways, I'm rambling."

"Okay, we'll get your instrument and..."

"Oh, I own a trumpet. I just didn't bring it today, I thought you would have stuck me with a theory test or something," she blinked owlishly when she received a look from the teacher.

"Do you  _ want _ a theory test?"

Ryoka shook her head immediately after the threatening suggestion. Theory was  _ okay  _ per-say... but she would rather not do it when she didn't have to.

"Then you can borrow one of the schools for today then."

Ryoka nodded, "Okay, as long as it's not theory everything's rainbows and unicorns." The class laughed at her exaggeration.

Once she got the trumpet, she inspected the mouthpiece. It was a standard 7c, one that comes with every trumpet when bought. It was worn, but clean. She put the mouthpiece on and tested the valves next, they were sticky and came up slowly if they weren’t pushed down properly. Frowning, Ryoka also had to adjust the first and second slides for tuning as the slides were out  _ way _ too far.

After tuning, they ended up playing some music she had never heard of before, River Easts Overture. The pieces were around grade two or three which was a bit difficult to sight read, but after playing once or twice she almost had it down.

She was sweating a little, "Man, that music has a  _ ton _ of notes above the staff! My embouchure is  _ jelly _ !" She heard a chuckle behind her and she turned to find Fuji and Tezuka. "Wha—oh! Why hello there Tezuka and friend?"

"The name's Fuji, nice to finally meet you."

She blinked and tilted her head, narrowing her eyes in confusion, " _ Finally _ ?" she parroted, her intonation rising in question.

"Well, you're the talk of the school and yesterday was quite interesting." He chuckled, briefly remembering the commotion she caused the other day.

"Hmm."

"We came to ask if you would like to practice with us," Tezuka came into the conversation.

"Isn't practice usually done in sectionals though?"

"The teacher allows us to practice in groups like this every other day."

"Well, when you put it like  _ that _ I guess I'll practice with you guys!" Ryoka smiled at the two, "What instruments do you two play?" She noticed them in the class earlier but didn't register what instruments they had because she was nervous of being in a senior class.

"I play the flute and Tezuka plays the clarinet."

Ryoka laughed, "The flute and clarinet suit you both to a  _ T _ ," they looked confused, so she  _ clar _ ified, "Typical band stereotypes." She picked up her trumpet and the music stand, "So, where are we going to practice?"

"On the roof."

Ryoka scrunched her nose, "Then we'll need a lot of clips it’s windy out today. Our music would go  _ flying _ ."

The music room was on the bottom floor, it had a separate wing in itself so they had to go up all three floors to get to the roof. On the way up, Ryoka ended up tripping on the last step. The trumpet slipped through her arms and went flying.

"The baby!"

She dove for the instrument. Ditching the stand that she was carrying and she caught it just before it hit the floor—though the price of that magnificent dive was a toll on her face as she slid against the floor.

" _ Owww _ ..." she winced.

"Are you okay Ryota?" Tezuka bent down to help her up.

"Never mind me—the  _ baby _ !" She frantically inspected the brass horn to find no further damage. She sighed in relief, "That was close. I don’t want to pay for damages on my first day."

Fuji laughed and gave her the stand she was carrying.

“Thanks.”

Getting to the doors, she lifted her leg and kicked the door open since she had no free hands. After getting through she used her foot to hold it open for Tezuka and Fuji.

"Oh, huh. Well I guess the wind died down.” Ryoka didn’t have to worry about it anymore since there was only a light breeze. "It was  _ helluva _ windy earlier."

"It's still nice out though."

Setting their stands down, Ryoka came to realize that she grabbed a bad stand. When she tried to extend it, it would just fall back to its lowest point, then the face of it tilted and her music that was on it went tumbling down to the ground. Huffing out a breath of exasperation, she slumped over to pick up the music.

"Aww," She whined, "I got a combination of the bully and the Hobbit."

Fuji and Tezuka helped pick up the sheets that fell.

"The Hobbit and the bully?" Tezuka asked, confused to what Ryoka was getting at.

"Yeah, the bully dumps your music onto the floor when you least expect it to, and the hobbit just can't be raised to a higher position, always stuck at the lowest setting.  _ Ahhh _ , it's so  _ annoying _ ."

Fuji chuckled at her exasperation, "Are there any more stand types?"

"Mmhmm," Ryoka nodded, "The graffitied, the leaner, the veteran, the wire stand, the Anne Boleyn, and lastly  _ El Perfecto _ ." She thought for a second, "Then there's the last resort," she smirked at the looks she was getting from the two, though Tezuka merely raised an eyebrow, "your unfortunate friend you annoyed enough to give in and hold it."

• • • • • •

**A.N: Well since not everybody knows music lingo among other things, I'll explain them down in an** **_A.N_ ** **when I need to.**

**On the Trumpet, there are three valves which are used to change the note, but you can change it with your embouchure through vibration and airspeed too—your embouchure is made from the seal of your lips on your instruments mouthpiece. The slides of the instrument connect to the valves and affect the tuning of the instrument, the pitch.**

**When Ryoka says that the notes are above the staff, she means that the notes are really high in pitch. Higher notes are harder to play on wind instruments due to the tightening of the embouchure and the increase of air that takes place to change and hold the higher notes.**

**If you guys don't get something, please ask in a comment, and I can explain further. Or google it. I’m no genius, and I do make my fair share of mistakes.**

**Oh, also about theory, it sucks. I wholeheartedly believe that no one musician truly likes the stuff.**

**Anyways, see you in the next update and piece!**


	3. Chapter 3

With the ringing of the schools bells, classes were officially done for the day.

“ _ Finally _ , it is time!” Ryoka’s shout of excitement startled those around her as she popped up from her seat.

In their last class, English, Ryoka had fallen asleep and could not be awoken by the teachers or her brother’s attempts. Ryoka just ignored the teacher and her brother when she was sleeping. She was happy that they let her sleep since she wouldn't budge.

"Ey Ryoma, you going to practice?"

"Of course. I  _ am _ on the tennis team"

"Hee-hee, let me join you then," she grinned.

There was a long but comfortable silence as they walked towards the tennis courts in tandem.

"Oi, Echizen!"

"Yes?" “Yeah?” Ryoma and Ryoka both answered simultaneously.

The person jogged to catch up to the pair.

“Momo.” Ryoma greeted, and if the two didn’t know him any better it would have looked like he was annoyed.

"Oh, is your brother joining the tennis team too?" he questioned them both.

"Yeah! I plan to join the regulars too, ya better watch out." Ryoka said tauntingly with a smirk, imitating her brother’s ever-present arrogance.

"Woah, your brother's just as arrogant as you Echizen."

She grinned, breaking her façade of Ryoma’s arrogance, "I'll take that as a complement."

"It wasn't a compliment you know." Ryoma said trying to aggravate Ryoka, but Ryoka didn’t get angry that easily so it just went over her head.

"Oi, we’re here," Momo spoke up to get their attention as the two were having a heated argument.

"Ok, where's the Captain? I need to get an application sheet."

"You don't need to, you have already been signed up." An older voice said from behind them.

"Ryuzaki-obasan!" Ryoka spun on her heel and ran up to the older woman, glomping her in full force. "Awww, thanks~ Now I don't have to go through the trouble."

"No problem—and  _ don't _ call me Obasan." Ryuzaki chided as she attempted to peel the twin off of her arm.

Ryoka held on to the arm within her grasp with an iron grip, "Dragon-lady’s good by comparison then?” She grinned when Ryuzaki sighed but nodded. “So, how will I join the regulars?"

"Hasty there are we?" She chuckled, "I'll ask Tezuka."

Momo and Ryoma had already left to change and Ryoka was still talking to Ryuzaki when, speak of the devil, Tezuka arrived.

"We hold ranking tournaments. If you are one of the top two of then you’ll be assigned as a regular." Tezuka said with his usual stoic expression.

"Ooh, so when will this happen?" Ryoka said excitedly.

"At the end of the month.” Ryoka pouted at the answer. That was in two weeks, it was too far away. “You’re signed up in the club, so I expect you to participate today.”

"Well, I guess I'm lucky I brought some spare clothes then. I'll go get changed, be right back!~"

"He's quite the bundle of energy isn't he, hmm Tezuka?" Ryuzaki asked.

"Yes, he will be a great asset to our team."

When Ryoka went to change she waited for everyone to be done before she entered the changeroom. When she got in she was thankful that there were stalls with curtains. She got into some spare sweatpants and a gray shirt and put a black hoodie on. The gray shirt was thin and she didn’t want to take a chance, so she wore the hoodie.

When Ryoka got out she went to look for Tezuka, he was at the centre courts watching over the other regulars warm up and noticed Ryoka approach. He ordered everyone to line up.

"We have a new member joining us today."

"Oi, isn't that Ochibi's twin?" Eiji exclaimed.

"Hey Eiji, pipe down," Oishi scolded Eiji, trying to quiet him down.

Ryoka whistled, “Oh man, they look tough! Just what you’d expect from regulars~," she grinned. "Why hello! Uh, well as most of you know,  _ I'm _ Ryoma's twin brother,” she put a hand to her chest, gesturing to herself. “It would be confusing if you called me Echizen too, so you can just call me Ryota. No need for any of those formalities, I'm less stiff than my  _ stick-up-the-ass _ brother so I'm chill about it."

The regulars stifled laughter while Ryoma's eye twitched angrily.

" _ Ehhem _ ...Then Ryota, if you would, can you go warm up with the team members?"

"Yup, sure thing!" She glanced around when everyone was dismissed and followed the first years. She poked somebody’s shoulder that was ahead of her, they had an undercut which was pretty cool. “Hey, uh, so what are we gonna do?”

The person turned around and she was completely underwhelmed by their appearance. The haircut didn’t suit the kid’s kind looking face. “Ah, Ryota-san, since you’re a first year we’re going to do basic drills, laps and pick up balls. Occasionally we play matches. Second years do their own training and help the regulars when they do drills.”

“Thanks,” she nodded. “So, what are your names?”

“I’m Kato Kachiro, it’s nice to meet you Ryota-san.”

Another person popped up from behind her, “And I’m Mizuno Katsuo!”  Ryoka blinked at the familiar hairstyle. It was almost a complete carbon copy of one of the regular’s hairstyles—she wasn’t introduced to him yet so she didn’t know his name—only without the two bang-things. “So Echizen had a twin, I never thought he had a sibling.”

“Yeah, he never talked about it in junior high.”

“He isn’t much of a talker, I think I stole the social butterfly in him from in the womb.” She laughed and was suddenly startled when she was hit on the head by the face of a racquet. She looked up to see another guy in a blue tracksuit towering above her—not much of a difference to her usual outlook on life—a second year she guessed. “Ah, hello senpai. Am I causing a disturbance?”

“Heck yeah you are,” the guy huffed, tucking the racquet under his arm. “Just because you’re Echizen’s brother it doesn’t mean that you have privileges around here.”

“Of course not, Senpai,” she nodded sagely, but immediately afterwards she grinned, ruining the serious atmosphere. “Now, are we gonna do these boring basic drills or not?”

“Yes, yes, we are Ryota-san, but only after laps.”

To say that it was easy was an understatement. Ryoka was bored by the pace set, and the number of laps were minuscule compared to what she was used to. Currently, they were repeatedly swinging a forehand, and it just would not end. It was going to be a loooong two weeks.

“Ryota-san, your swing isn’t right, the racquet’s tilted and the ball won’t go straight as it’s supposed to.”

Ryoka blinked, “Uh, I’m doing a slice forehand?”

“That’s not what we’re doing.”

“But—“

“Flat forehand swing. Honing on your basics will strengthen you.”

Ryoka narrowed her eyes, frowning. The person was obviously belittling her and it made her angry, but she knew confronting him wasn’t the best choice. She was new, they didn’t know her skill. She was a first year so she had to do what first years were  _ assigned _ to do. Her only hope to get out of it was to join the regulars. It didn’t mean that she had to like it though.

When they were done practice Ryoka grabbed her bag and bolted over to the regular’s side.

“Ryoma,” she looked up at him with pleading, watery eyes, “Please, please,  _ please _ save me.”

Ryoma blinked in surprise at his sibling, then with an almost cruelly amused smile, he said, “I’m sorry. I can’t do anything for you.”

“You’re  _ so _ not sorry,” she pouted. “…What about that match we didn’t finish?” Her eyes brightened with the question.

“… Later.”

“Al- _ right _ !” She cheered and bolted, but was caught by the collar of her shirt by the Senpai guy that was drilling them.

“Ah-ah-ah. First years have to clean up the balls.”

She sighed and tugged herself away with a pitiful whine, “ _ Fiiiine _ .” She trudged back over to the first years.

“Nya-ha-ha, Ryota’s hilarious!” Eiji leaned over and propped his chin on Ryoma’ head.

“He makes life… interesting.” A small smile adorned Ryoma’s face as he watched Ryoka grumble incoherently tossing the balls into the basket.

“He certainly is quite…” Oishi paused when he heard a strained grunt from Ryoka and more incoherent speech in English.

“ _ I mean, I used to be a ball boy during tournaments to help pay off the club fees, but I think I’m a little overqualified to be doing these beginner things, maybe?” _

“Vocal…” Oishi finished his thought. He only understood a few words out of her rant.

**• • • • • •**

“OH  _ CRAP _ !” Ryoka shouted as she suddenly remembered, not realizing that she was speaking English, “I FORGOT IT!” She bolted off and gathered her things. Halting to a stop by the regular’s courts, she yelled, “Ey, bro! I forgot something at home, I’m leaving my bag to you!” She put it on a bench and sprinted off, shouting, “Sorry! I’ll do laps or something later!”

“Is he…” “Always like that?” Kaido and Momo both blinked in surprise when they finished each other’s thoughts, and they were at each other’s throats once again.

“What did he even say?”

“It was said so quickly that I couldn’t understand it,” Fuji frowned thoughtfully. “Would you mind translating Echizen?”

“Sure. He said that he forgot something at home, entrusted his bag to me and that he would do laps or something later.” Ryoma shook his head. “Ryota has been rather disorganised since he got here.”

Kaido frowned in displeasure, certainly not impressed with Ryoka. “It’s been four days since he got here. I would think to get things in order the first day.”

“So what did he forget?” Momo asked.

“No idea.”

Just about twenty minutes later—a run of record time—Ryoka got back to the courts.

They were empty.

“Aww man,” Ryoka wiped her forehead of sweat, a run didn’t usually wear her out, but she  _ did  _ just sprint the whole way home and back. She saw that her bag there on a bench. Grabbing it, she slung her bags across her back and headed off to her class.

Ryoka got odd looks in the hallway, but she guessed it was because she looked weird with her bag set up. When she got closer to the classroom, she saw her brother walking slowly. Ryoka trotted up to him and poked his back, “ _ Rude _ . You just left my bag at the courts.”

Ryoma looked over his shoulder tiredly, “I didn’t want to carry two bags.” He slid the door open and went immediately to his seat, while she was stopped by someone.

“What are you carrying Ryota?” A classmate asked with amusement. She had way too much on her hands. Her tennis bag was slung over a shoulder with its shoulder strap and she also had a large black fabric case with another strap that crossed over her other shoulder, crisscrossing across her chest and back. It was a bit of a hazard since if she got caught on something it could be a choke her, but eh, it’s never happened yet so it was fine.

“Well, for one my tennis bag.” She answered with the one that they weren’t talking about for comedic effect. Hearing laughter around her, Ryoka mocked surprise “Oh! You mean  _ this _ !” she gestured to her other case.

“Yeah, what’s in it?” Another classmate asked, curious about the rectangular bag.

Ryoma sighed, “Enough with the suspense Ryota, just tell them. It’s too noisy.”

“Awe, spoilsport. Well… This has my baby in it.”

For a second everybody blanched, “ _ Baby _ ?”

Ryoka nodded happily and stroked the case, “Mmm _ hmmm _ , my precious child.”

“It’s a trumpet case,” Ryoma said with a raised eyebrow and yawned. He was too tired for this.

Ryoka just beamed and hugged the case. She couldn’t  _ wait _ for music class, it was the highlight of her schedule.

**• • • • • •**

When Ryoka entered the music room, she was greeted by another student who got there before her. She grabbed her music folder and sat down, rummaging through it. A minute later, she glanced up when she saw two pairs of legs to her side, “Hi?—Oh.”

“I would like to know why you ran off in the middle of practice,” Tezuka looked down at her with a pair of stern, crossed arms.

“Uhm…” she looked to Fuji who was smiling at her, but upon a closer look, his eyes most certainly were not.  _ Oh no… I got them angry… _

“You don’t have to look so scared,” Fuji opened his eyes to look into hers sincerely, a calm ocean blue. “If it’s a legitimate reason we won’t be angry.”

“But he’s  _ already _ angry,” she pointed a thumb at Tezuka who’s facial expressions only difference was some slightly furrowed eyebrows. Tezuka quirked a smile and at that Ryoka grinned, “Okay, now that you’re in a better mood, I’ll explain.”

Thinking about how she should explain it, she got her thoughts organized and opened her mouth—

“Hey, sorry I’m late class! A meeting went on longer than we all thought it would. Today we’ll be doing the same groups as we did yesterday. I also thought of a fun project to do since our numbers are even now. Each trio plays and learns a piece, and performs it together.” She smiled, “This will be a major group project that’ll be due before midterms. The groups you are in now will be the assignments. Now run along, I got things to grade, and then I’ll type up the rules for the project.”

The teacher's sudden project talk took up about ten minutes of class. People started gathering their things to get into their desired groups.

The representative of the music class stood at the board, “Alright, the next groups to use the practice rooms are Satoshi’s, Kanou’s, and Tezuka’s. My groups on the roof today.”

“Oh, we have practice rooms?” Ryoka’s eyes started to glitter with happiness.

“So?” Fuji brought back the topic of their original conversation.

“I forgot  _ this _ bad boy!” She held her case and rubbed her face on it, the feel of leather pleasant on her cheek, “My baby!” Others around her chuckled at her quirkiness but also related.

On the way there, she elaborated. “I’ll start with the beginning and original cause of this. So yesterday Ryoma and I finished that match we started. We were pretty close, but I ended up winning by throwing him off his game and teasing him about that… Sakura?—no Sakuno girl. I mean  _ seriously _ , have you seen how he acts around her?” She heard a cough from Tezuka behind her, “Anyways, I’m getting off topic.”

“No, we’re here—that too though.”

“Oh.” She opened the door and gasped, “There’s a piano!” She inspected it over and played a couple keys, “It’s a bit ugly looking, and most of the keys are broken, but it’s still good for tuning.”

She spun around on the stool, “Anyways, I’m gonna continue. I prank Ryoma occasionally though he never retaliates, but I guess I pushed the wrong button by teasing him and he got me back. I thought it was done after he put wasabi in my toothpaste.” She heard Fuji chuckle, and Tezuka had a small smile, obviously thinking that Ryoma wouldn’t do something like that. “After that, I thought it was over, but I was oh-so-wrong. I was up a bit late with a headache and asked Ryoma to fetch me an aspirin. Turns out the brat gave me a sleeping pill—I mean, they look the same—and turned off my alarm.” She sighed, putting her face in her hands.

“So you were late and forgot your instrument.”

“Yes, but I also left my lunch and meds. I gotta take ‘em every morning and lunch.”

“For what if you don’t mind me asking?” Fuji was curious.

“A.D.D. I don’t like taking it though, makes me feel different,  _ robotic _ even. Gotta get the doc to lower the prescription dosage or somethin’,” she clapped and brought out her trumpet, “Okay, now let’s get practising!”

**• • • • • •**

Ryoka heaved a bored sigh and swung her racquet.

Currently, her only solace in the tennis club were the three freshmen that she had befriended. They chatted during practice so it wasn't  _ that _ bad since it wasn't as boring as they talked. Though, rather than doing what was assigned, she wanted to do her usual regimen. She wasn't going to improve if the second year wouldn't let her practice her swing  _ her  _ way. She couldn't bear the wait and it wasn't even the end of her first week!— _ well  _ technically _ it is since I started on Tuesday and today's Friday, but I digress. _

"Are you alright Ryota-san?" She learned that Horio was rather dense in the emotional compartment so it was surprising for him to pick up on her irritability—though it  _ was _ past the point of being subtle by the time he noticed.

"No. I'm sick of this already—and it's only a half hour into practice. This practice isn't what I need." She frowned, swinging harder to vent her pent-up energy, "and drop the damn san, it's grating on my nerves."

"O-okay."

"Ryota-san. Your swing is too fast, keep in tempo with the others."

"Alrighty-o, Senpai. Uh, may I speak up?" She grinned when the poor sap nodded. She took a very deep breath in and

**• • • • • •**

Ryuzaki nodded in satisfaction at the effort the regulars were putting into their warm up. She had them doing rally sessions and to spice things up, she made it into a bit of a competition to see who could keep their rally going on the longest and whenever they dropped a ball they had to wait until every other person had done so too. She should have accounted that with the skills of the regulars, that they would continue for a long period of time. They had only done one rally so far, the one between Kaido and Tezuka going on the longest.

"Alright, move one court to the right and do one more rally, then we're moving on to laps."

"Yes, Ryuzaki coach!"

Ryoma smirked when he was paired up with Kaido. With them both being rather stamina oriented, it was bound to be a long rally. They had hit the ball an upwards of seventy times, and only one pair has dropped out so far, Inui and Kikumaru.

Suddenly, they all collectively lost focus and dropped their rallies when a very loud shout came from the courts parallel to theirs.

"DROP THE DAMN SAN HONOURIFIC!!! I THINK IT'S ANNOYING!!!"

There was silence as they turned to look and listen in on what was happening.

"...Please?" Ryoka added in as an afterthought.

"When you said "speak up" I didn't think you would BLOW OUR EARDRUMS!" The second-year shouted back. It irritated him that Ryoka just continued smiling up at him. "For punishment run thirty laps around the courts.

"Awe-yeah!" She hopped with a victory gesture and ran off.

"... Who  _ likes _ laps?" Horio and the other freshmen—there were only a batch of them—asked rhetorically in disbelief. They could feel themselves sweat as they watched her go.

"Um... Well, it's on to our laps now," Ryuzaki broke the stunned silence in the regular's courts.

The regulars started to run in their own little group when Ryoka came barrelling around the corner behind them. She was a little out of breath, but she was actively controlling her breathing so she wouldn't burn out as quickly. She slowed down and jogged beside the regulars.

"Nya~ What are you doing Ryota?"

"Sprints!" she looked up to Eiji with a smile, "It's an explosive exercise to—uh, gotta go!" She went from her jogging pace immediately into a sprint, passing them by.

They looked over to Inui who probably knew what she was trying to explain. "It's an exercise to work out your core and legs. From what he's doing, he's jogging for about sixty meters and sprinting for forty in intervals."

A moment later, Eiji sprinted off, shouting, "I wanna do it too!"

The others looked at each other with uncertainty before joining him.

Ryoka laughed as she approached from behind again, "Hahaha! You guys are doing it now too!"

They were exhausted by the time the laps were finished. It ended up turning into a competition halfway through and they were all out of breath and panting. Ryoka took a deep breath in and straightened out, stretching in place.

"That was fun!"

"How... are you... breathing...?!" Eiji heaved as he flopped onto the grass nearby.

Ryoka blinked, pondering on how she should explain it. "Uh... Breathing exercises?" was her wise and thought out response. Being athletic and a musician had its perks with lung capacity and breath control.

Kaido glanced at Ryoka, seemingly assessing her. She was quite speedy for someone with such short legs.

"Okie dokie, well I gotta get back to the first year's thing. See ya!" She lightly jogged back to the courts that the first years were occupying. "O-kay,  _ so _ ! We're rallying now, right?"

"Yes," the second-year guy that she still didn't know the name of responded. "We have an odd number now that you're here, so  _ I'll _ be the one rallying with you."

She blinked almost owlishly, "Okay?" She grabbed her racquet and walked over to the other side of the net. The guy did an underhand serve and started the rally.

"Alright Kouhai, once you drop the rallies five times you're to clean up the balls." He instructed as they went back and forth.

"Hey, what's your name? I can't keep addressing you as 'that senpai guy' in my head for forever you know." She was a bit more entertained now that they were actually hitting a ball. "Well, actually I  _ can _ , but I doubt that you'd like that,  _ Senpai Guy _ ." Ryoka laughed when he hit the ball harder cross-court and she had to quickly sprint across the court to get it. Two members got distracted by their conversation and laughed, subsequently dropping their rally.

"Eguchi Juuyo," he grumbled with a frown.

"Nice to meet ya," she smiled and had to consciously control her mouth as she almost teased him about his name.  _ He wouldn't like being called the Significant Egg. Eggu... _ She started laughing again.

"What's so funny?"

"N-n-nothing! Pft-hahaha!" Now she was the one who hit the ball too hard and Eguchi wasn’t able to react in time. Ryoka pouted, she wanted to keep these rallies going.

He raised an eyebrow and let her get her giggles out, "Are you done?"

"Y-yeah, I think," she straightened out and got into position, "Alrighty, now only four more rallies to go!"

_ We only did  _ one _ this whole time?  _ Eguchi looked over to the other first years, over half of them were finished and cleaning up already. He groaned, he chose the wrong person to target.

**• • • • • •**

Ryoma looked at his sister from the other side of the fence with a bit of an incredulous expression.

"They're  _ still _ rallying?" Ryuzaki asked rhetorically as she stepped to stand beside him.

"Hmm," Ryoma eyed the guy suspiciously. At first, he was worried, but from Ryota's smile, he could tell that it was mostly resolved. "I guess I don't have to worry then."

Eiji perked up, his ears opening when he overheard Ryoma. Now he was curious and hopped over to them. Following him were Oishi, Tezuka, Inui, and Momo. "Worry about what, nya?"

"He was a target for bullies when we were kids. I don't know why, but they teased him and made up rumours—and stop leaning on me Kikumaru-senpai."

"Ey, can you talk  _ any _ louder?" Ryoka shouted as she lunged for a ball. "I was bullied because I look feminine—well, also because I was a little  _ too _ nice and they took advantage of it—and poor young me was too naive to realize that they were being bullied." She added some spin to the ball and Eguchi just barely missed it. "If you were worried about Eguchi here, you don't have to. He may be mean and domineering, but he wasn't bullying me."

" _ Hey _ !" He shouted in protest and wiped the sweat from his forehead.  _ He isn't even out of breath! _

"Alrighty, now for the last one Eguchi. Everybody else is done, we should finish up." She bounced the ball a couple times and tossed it over. "Want to do it like a game point?"

He caught it with his racquet and bounced it a few times, "Sure. I don't really want to be here any longer anyway." He served an overhead and their rally continued. A few minutes passed and Eguchi was running on an empty tank, exhausted, he just wanted this to end. He set up for a finishing shot and did a two-handed forehand with all the strength he had left. He didn't want to lose to this freshmen that despite everything, was smiling.

"Aha,  _ there _ it is!" Ryoka had been trying to get him to add some oomph to his game, and she finally got it. She sprinted and leaped, and with the spin in her jump, the two-handed backhand shot off like a rocket. The spin and the inertia of her swing speed took the power from his shot and amplified it.

Eguchi didn't have the energy to chase after it.

Ryoka approached the net and put out her hand, "Good rally." He also put out his hand, but they both retracted them and wiped off the sweat. Ryoka went into her bag and took out a wet nap to wipe her racquet and hands down with. "That was a good shot! If you used that energy before it would have been a better practice session. Are you gonna be in the ranking tournament?"

"Yeah. I don't think I'll make it though..."

"Why not?" Ryoka popped up in front of him, "I think you'd do well! If you work on it, you could probably be a regular next year. You have a good foundation and decent power," she put her fist on his stomach, "You just need to feel how you did when you hit that last shot."

Eguchi scratched his cheek as he blushed in embarrassment, "T-thanks..."

"You have improved Eguchi-san."

"Thank you Bucho." He was happy that he noticed. He had even practiced his swinging at home in the yard. His sister was annoying though, calling it lame.

"Impressive shot."

She looked up from putting her racquet away to see Tezuka. "Thanks!" Ryoka glanced over to Eguchi, “I suppose I shouldn’t tell him that we technically didn’t finish the exercise.”

Eiji stopped bugging Ryoma and was curious, “What do you mean, nya?”

“He said that that the Kouhai had to drop the five rallies. I didn’t drop one,” she pointed a thumb at Eguchi, “ _ he _ did.” Ryoka grinned when it sunk in.

“ _ What! _ ”

“Oh, you heard that?”

“Damn you, you bratty freshman.” Despite the dark tone, it was said with humour.

“Well, unless you want to rally until I miss five times, then I’m gonna go,” she slung the large bag onto her back and the others started laughing. "What?" Even  _ Tezuka _ was hiding a smile in his hand.

"That bag's too big for you," Ryoma's smirk was quivering into a smile.

"You look like a kid!" Eiji blurted out.

"Well fuck you too!" Ryoka laughed. She didn't see Ryoma's face alter to shock at her language. "Oh yeah. Tezuka would I be able to do my own training during club hours? I'll still do the first year's duties and clean up 'n stuff."

Tezuka seemed to be thinking it over, "Only until the ranking tournaments. I expect you to be here during practice times."

"Of course!" She pondered for a moment, "I'll have too much to carry with my trumpet case. Hmm... Oh! Tezuka, do you know if there are any lockers I can use for my trumpet in the music room?"

"We don't have enough instruments to fill them actually. You can ask her on Monday."

Ryoka blinked, "I forgot, it's Friday already."

"Ryota, come on, we have to go, Kaa-san comes home today."

"Oh yeah! I've gotta surprise her somehow.  _ Hmm _ ..." Ryoka pondered as she followed her brother.

When they got home they were witnesses to Nanjiro getting an earful from Nanako. It was amusing since he was still in the same outfit that he’s had on for three days, reading dirty mags right in the middle of the living room.

"Rinko-san is going to be home within two hours! We have to get this house—and  _ you _ —cleaned up!" She finally noticed the two of them standing there when Nanjiro was mouthing  _ 'please save me' _ to them. "Ryoma, drag your father to the bath please—"

"Hey! I can bathe myself, thank-you-very-much!" Nanjiro frowned and huffed indignantly.

Nanako continued on as if she wasn't even interrupted,"—and Ryoka, help me clean up and make dinner."

"Sure, just let me get changed,” she was all sweaty from practice.

"Why do I have to supervise our father bathe. Who's the child here?" Ryoka laughed at Ryoma's mumbling. Certainly, their father was an oddball and Ryoka was the one who inherited it, Ryoma got the coolness from their mother.

Ryoka dropped her bag off in her room and was happy to see four boxes of her stuff. Two were labelled Clothes #1 and #2, one was Tennis Stuff, and the last box had books, knickknacks and some puzzles in it. Opening the clothes one—it was a rather large box—she grabbed a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. She'd organize everything later since one more clothing box was coming anyway.

"Alrighty Nanako, I'm ready to clean," she was promptly handed a cloth and an all-purpose cleaning solution.

"Dust everything and make sure it all looks neat. I've already vacuumed and done the laundry."

Dusting didn't take too long, but she found her fathers mag stash in the piano rooms music cache that her mother collected over time. When she finished, Nanako got her to dice up some vegetables and help her cook.

"I'm home!" Rinko sighed and took off her heels. Her feet were sore from wearing them for the past couple days and her heels were chaffed. She would have to get Nanjiro to give her a good foot rub.

Rinko went into the living room and sat down on the couch overlooking the kitchen.

"Welcome back Rinko-san! We're just making dinner," Nanako smiled and gave her a hug, "Nanjiro's up taking a shower."

"I see that Ryoma's helping you cook. That's rare."

Nanako blinked, confused.

Ryoka grinned, this was an opportunity. Their voices were very similar, but hers was just higher pitched and more cheerful than her brothers, so she just had to lower her voice a bit and make it sound bland. "Nanako roped me into it."

"That's good Ryoma, when you get a girlfriend I'm sure she'd appreciate it."

"Actually..."

Rinko gasped, "You lady killer—don't tell me you have a girlfriend already!"

"No, but I'm interested in someone."

"Oh, do tell."

"No," Ryoma answered from the entryway, an angry blush on his cheeks.

Rinko blinked, confused.

"Aww, you just had to ruin it."

"Wait, Ryoka! God damn it girl, enough with the pranks—come here and give your mother a hug!"

"Sorry Kaa-san, but I got meat hands,” Ryoka waggled her fingers, “I don't wanna ruin your blouse."

Rinko got up from her seat and hobbled over to Ryoka with her sore feet, "I'll hug  _ you _ then."

"Oh-ho, so you're…  _ interested _ in someone Ryoma?" Nanjiro leaned over and brought him into a headlock. "Oh-ho, my little boy's growing up! What's her name?"

"Her name’s Ryuzaki Sakuno, Dragon-lady’s granddaughter."

"Shut  _ up _ Ryoka!"

The rest of the evening was spent catching up with her mother over dinner—and teasing Ryoma about the girl he was crushing on.

"We should have the team over for dinner sometime."

"We could do a BBQ!" Ryoka nodded her head in approval, “Everybody likes meat!”

“Except vegans,” Ryoma added.

Ryoka reiterated his thought, “Yes, except vegans.”

**• • • • • •**

Monday morning, Ryoka went to club activities and got permission to leave early. She needed to go to the teacher's office and ask her music teacher if there were any extra lockers that she could put her trumpet in for convenience.

"Of course! We have locks on them already, so you'll have to look after the key. If you lose it you'll have to pay for a new lock."

"Thank you!"

Ryoka quickly walked to the other side of the school and locked up her baby. She put the key on her lanyard with her house keys and put that in a side pocket of her tennis bag.

When she heard the bell ring she quickly scurried off to her homeroom class.

"And why are you late Ryota-kun?"

"I got permission from the music teacher to lock my instrument in a locker."

The lady shrugged, "Good enough. Now sit down so I can start class... again."

**• • • • • •**

"First years gather!" Eguchi, the second year in charge of the freshman shouted. "We will be testing your stamina for the duration of this week. By the end of it, you will see a difference in your play, hopefully."

Ryoka raised her hand, "I got permission from Tezuka to do my own training until the ranking tournament."

Eguchi narrowed his eyes, not entirely believing her, "Hmm, I don't trust you."

"I'll even show you!" She hopped over to the fence closer to the regular courts and flailed her arms around to get their attention. Tezuka quirked a smile, it reminded him of the first ( _ second _ ) time they met. "Hey! Tezuka, Eguchi didn't believe me when I said that I had your permission to do my own training! Can you please tell him?"

"I did approve of Ryota's request Eguchi-san. He may go."

Eguchi frowned and stared at Ryoka, her grin irritating him. "Fine. Go do whatever you're going to do."

"Hurray!" She sprinted off out of the regular courts and over to the regular's side, "Dragon-lady, can I go to the weight room?"

Ryuzaki was surprised by her request, "If you tell me what you're going to do then maybe. If it requires a spotter then no."

"No, no, I'm not going on anything that needs a spotter," Ryoka paused to think of what ones she would be using, "The leg extension, leg curl, leg press, lateral pulldown, pull up bar... and some weights. I'm not doing any bench-presses."

"Alright."

"I might be back here before the club ends, I dunno. I'll probably be doing this for the next week."

"We'll send someone to check on you every so often."

"Alrighty!"

When Ryoka entered the weight room, she was surprised to see it in such good condition, there was a surprising number of machines too, about two of each. She also got heads to turn as she entered.

Some people laughed amongst themselves, "We've got a shorty in our midst." Other than that, they didn't do anything else. They just did their own thing.

Ryoka felt a bit uncomfortable—but, hey, it was a gym, it was to be expected that men would be in it. She could also see a fair number of girls. After warming up with a run on a treadmill, she went to the leg machines and worked away.

When she finished with her legs, she stretched them out and massaged them to prevent stiffness. She moved to her core, taking a decently heavy medicine ball and doing various exercises. Afterwards, she stretched out and took a small break, sipping on her water. When she was done, she went to her arms with a machine and moved on to pushups.

Horio looked around with caution. Everybody there looked like they could snap their neck. He recognized that most of them were in martial arts clubs and gulped. He did not want to get them angry. Finally finding Ryota, he scurried over.

"Ryota! Ryuzaki coach sent me to check up on you."

Ryota paused in her reps to see who it was, she continued, "H-ello Horio. Tha-anks for coming." She counted each one out in a whisper in-between talking, "thirty-seven. I'm almost done this set." She stopped once she hit forty.

"Hey, I just noticed something. You’re the only first year who wears sweatpants when we practice.

Ryoka blinked at the odd question, "I don't really like wearing shorts unless it's hot enough to actually wear them. It's early spring, the wind is still quite cool."

"Oh."

She sipped on her water, "So, what's up in the club?"

Horio heaved a breath, "Horrible. Eguchi-senpai's got us running non-stop. We even did those sprint things you got the regulars to do—it was  _ torture _ !"

Ryoka laughed, "I know. It's hard, right?"

"For sure. I was so happy when I was the one chosen to check up on you."

"Well, sorry to burst that bubble of yours but I'm not injured or anything. You can go back and give Dragon-lady the news and return to your torture."

Horio slouched over and sighed, "Okay. I'll let her know."

And off Horio went with that hilariously scared expression of his—he passed by and accidentally bumped into one of the larger judo guys and paled, running off with a shout of, "Sorry!".

Ryoka returned to her workout and went to work on her calves.

**• • • • • •**

"First years! Get off the ground and clean up! Second years, help them for god's sake, you pushed them too hard." Ryuzaki sighed, she had to knock some sense into those kid's heads. "And where is Ryota? Can someone go check on them?"

"I'll check on him."

When Tezuka left, Fuji followed too. He was curious about what Ryoka was doing. None of the tennis players generally used the weight room—well, maybe Kaido—and Ryota was generally a unique person. She caught his interest.

They found her lying on the floor doing crunches with a medicine ball. The core was very important to add strength and balance, so she focused on it a lot along with her legs. She was a bit lost in thought, thinking about how Will and Jake were doing. She hadn’t had the chance to go on her computer yet, not even knowing the wifi password.  _ I haven’t practiced those dances in a while. I think they have another one that they wanna do? _

"Ryota, the club is finished."

Ryoka was startled and dropped the medicine ball onto her gut, " _ Oof _ !" she grunted and started coughing. "Thank  _ God _ I had my core engaged still or that would have knocked the wind out 'a me."

Tezuka knelt down beside her, worried, "Are you alright?"

Fuji looked at the weight on the medicine ball, fourteen pounds. "That was quite a heavyweight to drop on your stomach."

"Yeah, I'll be fine, thank you—I might get a bruise though," she rubbed her stomach. "Yeah, I'll use some cream on it when I get home."

"I'll make sure you do. I have hurt you by accident."

"Why? Is it going to harm your conscience?" She laughed, "Alright. Why don't you stay over for dinner? Fuji too, you wanna come?"

Tezuka thought about it for a moment, "I'll have to pass on dinner, I have something to do when I get home.

“Same with me. I have company coming over.”

"Alrighty, not gonna force ya if you can't. Now, I was going to do one more thing, but as I'm possibly injured, I don't wanna aggravate it," she winced a bit when she moved the wrong way. "I need to stretch this out first though so it doesn’t get all stiff.”

She sat on the ground with her legs in a v and started stretching out her core and lower back. “Excuse me, Tezuka? You think you’d be able to push down on my back?”

“Alright,” he put his hands on her shoulder blades and pushed down lightly.

“Now I know that I may be a twig compared to you tall guys, but I’m not gonna snap if you push harder. C’mon, put your weight into it. I can take quite a beating.”

With her encouragement Tezuka put his weight into it, Ryoka’s arms slipped and her face went right into the padded flooring. She turned her head with a loud grunting noise and rested her cheek on the mat. She was gonna have a red mark on her face.

“Are you alright?” He stopped pushing down on her and she just stayed where she was.

“I’m fine, it’s when I  _ don’t _ make weird noises that you have to worry, “Ryoka laughed. “Well, I guess I deserved that too though, I egged you on.”

Fuji laughed and Tezuka chuckled. Ryoka just had that kind of cheerful personality that made others happier.

“I’ll be going now. See you guys tomorrow.”

“See ya Fuji!” Ryoka waved from her awkward position. “Thanks, Tezuka. I can finish this up myself.”

Tezuka sat off to the side as Ryoka stretched. He texted his mother that he was going to be home later than usual and by the time he was finished with their conversation, Ryoka was finished.

“Anything you need to grab before we venture off?”

“Yes, actually. I need to drop some papers off at the teacher's lounge.”

Ryoka just put the medicine ball back from where she got it from, and they were off. Ryoka chatted while Tezuka listened and occasionally chipped in.

**• • • • • •**

**A.N. I hope that it was enjoyable because I really like the interactions I have going on. xD**

**How’d you guys like it? Any feedback is appreciated.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Ah, hello! Long time no update! Unfortunately, Full-time work and health problems have been causing difficulty with my writing. This is a bit of a feel-good story for me, so it was easier to write though! And this here I am, with an update!**

**Now, I hope you can enjoy!**

**• • • • • •**

Walking down the hall, Ryoka chattered about music genres when Tezuka stopped. She continued walking and talking until she heard a knock, stopped and spun on her heel to walk back.

Ryoka was so engrossed in her somewhat one-sided conversation that she didn't notice him stop.

Tezuka glanced over to make sure she was still with him and opened the sliding door. Only a handful of teachers were left in the room, and Tezuka made a beeline for Ryuzaki. Ryoka trotted up in front of him and weaved through the desks.

She leaned on the desk with a smirk in an attempt to look suave, "Good-evenin' Dragon-lady. How's life?" Her voice was lowered, thus making it sound funny, and she wiggled her eyebrows seductively. From her position, she couldn't see a smile quiver onto Tezuka's face.

Ryoka's mission succeeded when the older lady snorted, and there was some laughter from the other teachers.

"Am I ever going to get you to drop that nickname?" Ryuzaki sighed and shook her head. She was smiling though.

"Fraid not m'lady. Ryu means dragon, and besides, Dragon-lady just sounds so  _cool_!" She got distracted when Tezuka handed Ryuzaki a few papers over her head, which she pouted at, and they started talking about something complicated. Ryoka had no idea what they were talking about the topic going completely over her head just like those papers. "Uh, 'scuse me, is this student business or tennis club  _captain_  business?"

"What do you mean?"

"Is this confidential or no?"

"No."

"Okie-Dokie, then I can stay—uh, wait, never mind. I'll be right back. The almighty  _Can_  beckons me!" Ryoka backtracked, walking backwards before sliding the door from behind her and left to go to the washroom with a salute and grin.

"Sure goes to the beat of their own drum, that one."

Tezuka quirked a smile and looked to the door, "All the super players in the past all had some type of charisma to them—a charisma that draws people to them."

Ryuzaki hunched over her desk, leaning her cheek on her palm, " _Charisma_ , huh?" She smiled and looked at the stoic teen.  _So she's growing on you, hmm, Tezuka? Like a fungus._

"Hm?" Tezuka couldn't piece together the meaning of the look she gave him.

"Well, if he managed to change  _Eguchi's_  mindset, then that's some mighty strong charisma."

**• • • • • •**

"I'm home!" Ryoka shouted as she opened the door and took her shoes off, "and I've got a temporary guest! Ah, Tezuka your shoes can be put under this bench," she nudged it with her socked foot and stepped up to the hardwood flooring, "also be careful of this step, I took quite the tumble the first time I got here and still have a bruise on my shin from it."

Tezuka looked around and took in the appearance of the place, it was a conventional home mixed with modern elements. His own home was the same style, but more traditional. From the way Ryoka described it the first time, he had a picture of a literal shine in mind. On the way there she explained that her father got the place for quite the deal with the condition that he took up the duties for the shrine next door.

"This is quite a nice home."

"My mum would be happy to hear that! She and Nanako keep the place nice and tidy."

Idly, Tezuka wondered who Nanako was and trailed after Ryoka when she beckoned him to follow, "Ma? Where art thou, Ma?" Ryoka stepped into the dining room, "Where the heck is she?  _Oh_ , she must be gardening." Sliding open a shoji door, Ryoka cut through the piano room and upon opening another sliding screen, she stepped into the open veranda. After a banter with her mother she was taught the  _proper_  term, engawa—it was still a veranda to her though, a roofed hallway that went around the perimeter of the house to connect from home, to garden.

Looking to the right, her eyes were immediately drawn to her mother's fluorescent pink hat, it was quite the attention grabber. "Ah-ha,  _there_ she is."

Rinko heard the door open and looked up to see her daughter. Wiping the sweat from her forehead, she tried to avoid touching the dirty gardening gloves to her face, "Ah, hello dear."

Ryoka smiled, "Ey mum, I brought over a temporary guest."

An eyebrow rose quizzically, " _Temporary_?"

"Yeah! A won't-be-able-to-stay-for-dinner temporary guest."

"Where are they then?" Rinko didn't see anyone else in the area.

"What do you mean? He's right…" she looked over her shoulder to see if Tezuka was behind her and spun around in a circle looking for him, "… here?" Turns out he was not there. Frowning and tilting her head in thought, she trotted over to the door she came out of and saw Tezuka looking at the piano with its accompanying shelves filled with music. "Found him! He's appreciating the piano room!"

"Ah, I apologize."

Ryoka waved her hand dismissively, "Nah, it's fine, I admire it a lot too. My mum wants to meet you. Come, come," she beckoned him over.

"Ah,  _there's_  Houdini."

Ryoka laughed at Rinko's joke, "This stoic disappearing act of a teen is none other than Tezuka Kunimitsu!" doing a dramatic reveal, she flailed her arms to showcase him.

Tezuka quirked a smile at the eccentrics that were being thrown around, just a  _little_  bit uncomfortable, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Ma'am."

"Likewise," Rinko tipped her pink cap in a makeshift bow, "I'm Echizen Rinko."

Ryoka chuckled, "Even if Ryoma takes after you more than I do, he still didn't get any of the fun genes. Makes me wonder how he grew up so  _stiff_  ya know?"

"Speaking of your stiff brother, would you be a darling and go wake him up? He said he was going to take a nap and it's about time he got up. Nanjiro's been complaining that he doesn't have his punching bag."

"Aye, aye, captain!—and  _Captain_ ," Ryoka gestured to Tezuka and bowed, grinning. Spinning on her heel, she jogged back into the house. "Oh!" She poked her head out, "You can give the piano a whirl if you want. It'll take a bit to get Ryoma up  _and_  docile," and without another word, she was gone.

Apparently, Tezuka was staring at the spot where Ryoka had been occupying for a little  _too_  long because Rinko noticed it.

"Ryo–ta is quite the whirlwind, isn't he?" If Tezuka noticed her odd pause, he didn't indicate it. "How's he doing in the tennis club? Kick up any trouble yet? I know Ryoma's fine, but Ryota can be quite the troublemaker."

"Yes, actually," Tezuka couldn't help but chuckle lightly. He sat down on the edge of the veranda when Rinko gestured him to.

"May I ask why you're visiting? Not that I mind Royta making friends, I'm just curious… how did he rope you in?"

Tezuka looked her in the eye, and chose to go with the bluntly honest rout, "I played a part in the injury he received and wanted to make sure he got the proper treatment."

"Oh? Our Ryo's get injured pretty often, so it's no surprise."

Tezuka glanced to the side quizzically when he heard a loud thud and a shout.

"Mum!" Ryoka jumped down the stairs, using the railing for guidance and slid around the corner. "Ryoma's not in his bed, I think he left with— _damn_ , what's his name again? Ah!—Momoshiro! His racquet bag was gone."

Rinko raised an eyebrow, "You vaulted off the stairs again, didn't you?" She sighed at the blatant nod and rubbed at her temples,  _that girl's going to start denting the floor sooner or later._ "Well, you certainly don't seem injured. What happened?"

"Ryota dropped a medicine ball on his stomach while exercising. I startled him and caused it, I apologize," Tezuka bowed his head.

"Nah, it's fine. I'm quite tough after all!" Ryoka put a fist to her chest, using a power pose to try and look strong.

"I would like to make sure you treat your injury."

Ryoka pouted. "Alright, alright. Trying to assert dominance probably isn't the best thing right now anyway, I can feel the bruise forming," she patted her tender stomach.

"That muscle cream is in the linen closet on the shelf under the towels. It should be behind the bandages."

"Kay! I'll be back again. Please don't let her corrupt you, Tezuka," she stage-whispered the last part, and when she got  _the look_  from her mother, she cackled and bolted.

Rinko smiled and shook her head, "I apologize for his rudeness, he's been in America for so long that I'm afraid honorifics are completely lost on him now."

 _How long has he been overseas then?_ "I do not mind. However, if it were anyone else I would." He learned that Ryoka respected him since having that first match. He also knew that she saw him as a friend— _He's friendly with everyone though._

Ryoka frowned, she's basically turned the closet topsy-turvy in her search. "Uh, Mum! It's not in here!?" Ryoka went down the stairs normally this time since her stomach was gradually getting more and more sore. She sighed and walked into the living area, "It's not in there. I swear I could have found Narnia if I looked any harder."

"Oh, my mistake, it must be in the bathroom then. Sit down with and have some tea Tezuka-kun, I'll be back in a moment."

Ryoka blinked owlishly, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion as her mother left to get the cream, "Hmm…"

"What is it?"

"I'm suspicious, Ma would have normally yelled at me to look harder. Then usually she would find it in the exact place she would say." Ryoka sat down on the couch and grabbed her tea, "I think it's because you're here, she doesn't want her first impression to be bad."

Not a moment later, Rinko came back in the room with the item in hand, "It was in the closet. I can tell you looked hard though, but please clean it up after you make a mess of it," she smiled sweetly and put the cream into Ryoka's lap. Upon closer inspection, her smile looked forced, and her eyebrow was twitching.

"Sorry, I'll keep that in mind." Ryoka covered her mouth with her hand and whispered to Tezuka, "See, I was right!"

Rinko narrowed her eyes and made direct eye contact with her daughter, implying that she knew what was being whispered about even if she couldn't hear what was said. She  _knew_.

"… I have the sense that your mother may be terrifying."

"Mmm, when she wants to be, yeah," Ryoka nodded, completely agreeing with Tezuka. "She  _has_  to be with our family, Dad is really lazy and doesn't do things unless threatened. Ryoma, hmm… he works well with bribes."

 _That's good to know, Ryoma can be challenging to deal with on occasion._  "And you?"

"Hmm, I'm more of a gratification person. I do well with praise I guess? Criticism is alright as long as it's constructive."

"Oh?" Rinko overheard as she was washing the teapot and cups, "When did you learn this Ryota? I never knew you were into self-reflection," Rinko was curious, Ryoka didn't seem to be the type to think about things that deeply. She was her mother she  _should_ know these things, but as they have been apart for so long, Rinko didn't know as much about Ryoka as she would like.

"Oh, I'm not really, but in the high school I went to, there was an optional extracurricular class about psychology. We did surveys for personality and learning types."

"That seems interesting."

Ryoka nodded, "Yeah, I can show it to you sometime if you'd like."

"Well, it's starting to cool down again so I'll be in the garden if you need me."

"Alrighty-o, Ma!" Ryoka shouted as Rinko left the room, "Kay, so back to that cream—the original purpose of all this."

**• • • • • •**

Opening the front door, Ryoma wondered if he should have given his family a heads up that he was heading out, but now that he was back, it didn't really matter. He and Momoshiro went to a grand opening of a new sports store in a shopping centre, it was a little further away than the store he frequently went to, but it had a much more extensive inventory.

"I'll have to save up for that racquet," he nodded to himself as he took off his shoes—not noticing the extra pair of shoes—and his stomach growled. He hasn't eaten since lunch. Ryoma was  _starving_. "A snack before dinner wouldn't hurt."

Making his way down to the kitchen, Ryoma heard voices and paused in his stride.  _Who's Ryoka talking to?_

"Ah! Holy moly, that stuff is  _cold!_ "

"Once it soaks in you must put on another layer." Tezuka said as he took a closer look at the label and adjusted his glasses, "That is what the directions say."

Ryoma, morbidly curious, collected himself and walked in.

He blinked owlishly for a second, not fully processing what he saw.

Ryoka had her shirt hiked up with her stomach exposed as she was rubbing something on her skin.  _I should really put more effort in if she has better abs than me_. Then he processed that his captain was there, sitting beside her.

"B-bucho! Ryo—ta!" Ryoma barely caught his tongue and briskly walked over. Standing in front of them, forgetting entirely of his needy stomach, he bristled protectively. Ryoka looked paler than usual, and she was breaking out in a cold sweat.  _She's on the verge of a panic attack._  "What are you doing?"

" _Well_ , I sorta dropped a medicine ball on my stomach. It's not fully developed, but there's gonna be a huuuge bruise.  _See?_  It's already getting purple," she grinned and lightly rubbed her stomach, grimacing slightly at how sweaty her palms were. "So I'm putting some medicated cream on it."

Blinking owlishly, Ryoma raised an eyebrow, and his annoyed gaze moved to Tezuka, "With supervision?" He asked in confusion, not understanding why the captain should be there for it.

From the scathing look Tezuka was receiving from Ryoma, he decided that it was in his best interest to explain why he was there.  _I didn't think he would be so… protective._  "I was partial to blame for him getting hurt. Therefore I wanted to confirm that his injury was treated properly."

"Oh, it's dry. Second layer time." Ryoka spoke as she slathered some more cream on. If she was forcing herself to act normal, Tezuka didn't notice.

Ryoma turned to go get his snack from the cupboards, glancing over his shoulder every so often to keep an eye on Ryoka and Tezuka.

Once that was done, Ryoka stood up and stretched, testing out her sore abdomen before doing anything else. "Well, I appreciate your concern, and now that that's over with, I gotta help with dinner. Usually Ma and Nanako do it, but Nanako's practically barricaded herself in her room saying, " _If I don't do this now, I'll never get it done."_  The lady's so swamped with assignments." Ryoka bowed her head and clasped her hands in prayer, taking in a shaky breath, "My condolences, Nanako."

Accepting Ryoka's explanation for what it was, Tezuka stood up and was followed to the entryway—because when dealing with her one  _had_ to take things in stride, lest become overwhelmed. The latter of which happening most of the time, regardless.

Slipping his shoes on, Tezuka looked to Ryoka who was patiently waiting to see him disembark on his minute-long journey home. "We should schedule some time to get together for our music project."

"Ahhh, I  _toootally_ forgot about that! Thanks for the reminder. We should talk about this in class or after practice though so Fuji could get a say in things—because I feel that he wouldn't appreciate being left out of the decision making."

Waving goodbye, and seeing the door shut behind Tezuka, Ryoka slumped to the floor in relief. Ryoma popped out from around the corner that he was hiding behind. "..." He walked towards her and frowned thoughtfully, "Are you… alright?"

Ryoka, now laying on the floor, looked up to her sibling who she noted looked uncharacteristically concerned—even from her upside down vantage point. "Ah… I will be in a bit." Now that she was out of the panic-inducing scenario, she was calming down, just noticing how sweaty she was. "I just gotta let it pass."

"Do you need help moving, or…?"

"Nah, I'm good here."

With that, Ryoma cast her one more look before ascending up the stairs and going to his room.

Ryoka laid down on the floor for a good couple minutes to cool off and collect herself, and when she decided to get up, her limbs didn't agree with the idea of supporting her weight. She would walk, but going up the stairs at the moment probably wasn't the best idea.

"Oh yeah, I should probably get a part-time job sometime—I'll ask Ma." Ryoka walked outside onto the porch and sat at the edge where her mother was gardening.

Pausing in her task of watering the now freshly planted flowers, Rinko looked to her daughter. "Yes, how may I help you?"

Laughing lightly, Ryoka quirked a smile. "I know you have some mafia-esk connections. I was wondering if you know anyone around here that needs a part-timer."

"Oh, what brings this up?" Rinko saw her daughter shrug.

"Something to do with my time. I've worked a couple of jobs while in school. It's just good to save and have that money if you need it, you know?"

Happy to see that Ryoka had that outlook, she nodded. "I'll keep an eye out."

"Thanks, Mum!" Now that she was feeling slightly better, Ryoka made her way to her room. Remembering something, Ryoka knocked on Ryoma's door. "Ey, Ryoma?" Opening the door open a crack, she peaked in and asked, "What's the WiFi password?"

A smile made its way onto his face despite trying to fight it off, "It's Karupin the Tennis Kink. All English. Capitalise Karupin, tennis, and kink."

Ryoka snorted, "Ha! The tennis kink?"

" _Someone_  made a typo and never bothered to fix it." The emphasis on who it may have been only made Ryoka laugh harder as it was quite apparent to who it was.

"I wouldn't ' _fix'_ it either, that's golden! Plus, it's so unexpected that no hacker would ever guess it."

Ryoma wisely chose to leave as Ryoka started to talk to herself about hacker controversies that could take down the government. Ryoka grinned as her jibber-jabbering about nonsense drove her brother off.

**• • • • • •**

Ryoka rolled her eyes, and with a sigh, she cradled her head in her arms. Jake and Will have been nagging her for the past hour, and she was  _finally_  at her breaking point with them.

"You think we brought him to the limit?"

"Yeah, finally. You have quite the long fuse for a firecracker."

Lifting her head and supporting it on her hand, she allowed the two morons to be graced with her not-amused expression.

"Oh no." Will's eyes widened, "It's the  _silent_ anger."

"Thanks be to lord internet that we're not there." Jake made the motions of the cross even though he wasn't religious.

"The spar would  _not_ be pleasant I tell you." Ryoka agrees with a gleam in her eyes, affirming their worries. "Alrighty, now that you two have finished riming me a new one—how goes it on your end?"

Changing the topic was beneficial to her as she was now passed the anger from being distracted by something more entertaining. Ryoka had been catching the two up on what happened on her side when they started nagging on how she should be more careful—and that they were proud she ' _taught that douche a lesson'_ Jakes wording, while brash, conveyed what they wanted. If they could have given her a pat on the back, they would have.

"Okay, so Mr. Dickson, the strict stickler of the Grade nine Gym class, somehow misses me."

"Yeah. He said—and this is word for word—"Ryota, while a troublemaker from the class last year, was one out of the three morons that actually attempted to follow the rules in the midst of chaos" with that trademark snort of his at the end."

"Rude on his part. We were known as the triad of chaos in his gym class known for our dodgeball formations and mad skill." Jake gasped in shock, "But since you're gone... that can only mean that his favourite out of the three of us was you!"

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Fuck you, Watson."

Totally ignoring the joking ire between the two bickering boy's, Ryoka mushed her cheeks bashfully, "Awe, the stickler misses me." Her tone went neutral as her expression went conniving, "Just tell 'em I'll try to visit for  _Christmas_."

"Ah, yes. We must have the retelling of the infamous Christmas prank of Black Santa."

The three reminisced on that practical joke. "It was  _totally_ unintentional for it to be racist."

"We didn't think his skin would turn  _black_! It was supposed to turn orange—like a bad spray tan." Jake crossed his arms and huffed, but still went on to try and explain it. Because, after all, it was his part to find the stuff to do the deed with. "Like you know mood rings and how they turn black when they get cold? He was  _supposed_ to turn orange."

"Yeah, yeah—and I thought you were the chemistry guy out of all of us—anyways, back to you Ryo," Will poked the webcam to get their attention. "If you have one more close call, you should really cut your hair."

"Yeah…" Ryoka frowned and played with her wig's bangs. The texture was much rougher with how long she's had it, and it was her fourth replacement! "I mean while I'm used to the routine of putting on the wig, it's becoming more of a nuisance now."

"So another close call and you'll chopp'er all off?"

"Yeah, I think I'll want it a bit longer than this though."

The two teens on the other side of the screen grinned, "You do what you want, you're a strong independent person who don't need no hair counselling."

Raising her eyebrow, Ryoka smiled and shook her head fondly, "Well, g'night. It's getting late here and I want to keep my sleep schedule decent."

With each one of the three stooges doing a dramatic bow, they each closed the call.

**• • • • • •**

Soon, school started to feel routine for Ryoka. It was quite a good feeling now that her sleep schedule was in order.

Ryoma yawned as Ryoka pushed him along, too tired to walk straight. "I still don't understand how you get up so early. You get up at  _six_."

"Early bird gets the worm bro," Ryoka poked Ryoma's stomach, "or breakfast in this case. Plus if we didn't leave when we did, we wouldn't be on time for the inter-school tournament!"

Even in his sleep-muddled haze, Ryoma recognized that something was wrong with her statement. "That starts tomorrow, you know."

Ryoka slowly stops nudging Ryoma along. "Oh… Well, that just means the team will get collective heart attacks when you arrive early."

Soon arriving on the school's campus, the two round the corner and changed before hopping onto the court for regular warm-ups. Not wanting to go overboard before the tournament, Ryoka only did one session of weightlifting in the morning. Practice wasn't that intensive as the members were taking it relatively easy to prepare.

Briskly running laps, Ryoka saw Tezuka looking over paperwork and graphs of some sort, standing in beside a bench and occasionally watching over the regular's rallies.

Seeing this through the fence as she did her laps around the courts, she came to a quiet stop behind Tezuka and upon closer look, he seemed to be staring off into space. Pouting at his height, Ryoka grinned when she stood up on the bench behind him without him hearing.

Noticing the mischievous twin, Oishi took his attention away from his rally with Eiji to call out, "Uh, Bucho?"

Looking up from his clipboard, he clicked his pen and looked around almost owlishly, unsure of who called him out of his daze.

Oishi seemed to unintentionally cause the opening that Ryoka was waiting for.

Her hands hovered over his shoulders for a moment and gently put her hands on before she took a quick raspy breath in. She whispered, " _You smell different when you're awake_."

Once Tezuka felt the hands on his shoulders, he froze, and when the heard the hissing breath in, he flinched, dropping the clipboard with a clatter on the ground. Then the creepiest voice came—a hoarse old ladies voice, barely above a whisper. Tezuka's complexion went as white as a sheet. There was a light laugh, and at first, it sounded like an old woman's, but it slowly changed to a familiar one, cackling.

He stood in silence for a moment, a single eyebrow twitching as he tried to hold the reigns on his emotions as Ryoka collapsed to the ground from laughing so hard, holding her stomach.

"Ahahaha! Ha!  _M-My, my abs! Th-they hurt!_  Hahahaha!" The arm she was resting on the bench banged a few times as she laughed.

Following the sound of chaos and a voice in English, a few club members came to the scene. Tezuka was frozen, seething quietly and looking very pale, with Ryoka sitting on the ground in the throes of laughter.

" _I-I can't breathe!_ "

"Haha! What did you even say to make him react like that?" Eiji asked as he slowly grew concerned for her. Tezuka looked pissed.

Oishi trailed behind Kikumaru looking slightly constipated as he tried to hold down his smile.

"Oh, I—Hahaha!" She took a moment to try and calm down her laughter. Wiping the tears away from laughing so hard, she used her other arm and propped herself up from the knee. "C'mere, I'll tell you."

Eiji leaned forward for Ryoka to whisper it to him.

"Okay, so I bet you didn't feel me lick your ear." And with that, there was another victim as Eiji jumped away in freight, covering his ear with a hand.

"Wha- what! Did you really, nya?"

"Nope," she grinned and shook her head, " _Negatory_."

Frowning with a pout, Eiji gave her a noogie, "Why you little brat, I'll get you back!"

Cackling maniacally, she accepted his challenge, "You're welcome to try!"

They all halted when someone cleared their throat. "Before anyone gets  _anyone_ back—Ryota."

"Y-yeah, Tezuka?"

"Give me twenty…" he stopped what he was going to say. Ryoka liked laps, so that wouldn't be a suitable punishment. A smile found itself onto his face when he recalled something. "Actually, you can plank for the rest of practice." He remembered a conversation when she said her least favourite thing to do in gym class was planking, and he would use that knowledge well.

"I regret telling you." Ryoka frowned and got onto the ground, "But it's fair—I guess."

Sometime later, a few members came back from doing their laps around campus.

"What's Ryota doing?" Momoshiro asked Oishi, gesturing down to the freshmen who looked to be struggling. "I mean, I know what he's doing—but why?"

"Oh, he scared Bucho, so he's planking for the rest of practice." He was tasked to watch over Ryoka and make sure she didn't try and worm herself out of the punishment, which she hadn't done yet. He was also making sure that she kept her back straight, but hasn't seen any slouching as of yet.

Looking over again, Momo could see a little pool of sweat on the court under her chin. "That is one reason not to scare Bucho."

"Ugh, how much longer until I'm done this?" Ryoka called out, lifting her head more so she could see the others.  _I can hear you, you know!_

Just before Oishi could tell her, there was a sharp call for a team meeting. Much to Ryoka's embarrassment, they met in the court she was planking in.

"Keep your back straight!" Eguchi barked with a smirk as he walked into the court.

Only used to her good mood, he jumped a bit when her head whipped to look at him with the darkest glare she could muster. " _Shut your fucking mouth_ — _you_  try doing this Eguchi." The other members were taken aback by her irritability, and only able to vaguely know what she said in English, they sweatdropped. Arms shaking too much, Ryoka moved down to an elbow plank for the rest of her time.

Ryoka was  _not_ in the mood for taunting. She may be a happy go lucky individual, but she knew when to not take anybody else's shit.

Ryuzaki stood in her pink tracksuit with Tezuka standing in front while he spoke to the team. He ran over the information about the Ranking Tournament and how it would work. Ryoka, however, was too focused to properly pay attention and only caught snippets of information. Eight regulars would be chosen, but that was pretty much all Ryoka got out of it.

"Alright, meeting dismissed. You are all free to leave." Tezuka continued jotting things down onto his clipboard as everyone else filed out. Oishi talked to him for a moment, glancing over to Ryoka, and handed Tezuka something. Whatever it was, Ryoka couldn't tell what it was as Tezuka was blocking it.

"You're not coming Ryota?" Ryoma stopped before leaving the gates. He had been watching her to make sure she was alright. She looked exhausted.

"N-not yet," she took a deep breath. "I was told to do this until the end of practice—and that's just what I'll do."

Ryoma looked over his shoulder. Tezuka was still standing there, still writing things down—but he was just moving his pen above the paper. "I'll see you in class then."

"Yeah. See ya Ryo."

A couple minutes or so passed and Ryoka huffed a dry laugh. Tezuka was still hanging around. "You here to watch me suffer?"

"Not quite the word choice I would use, but I am here to tell you when to stop as you don't seem to be keeping track of the time."

"How kind of you." Taken aback from the sarcasm, Tezuka frowned. Realizing that her tone was rather scathing, Ryoka backtracked, "Sorry, I'm just a bit—a bit irritable at the moment." Her arms and torso were shaking as she tried to keep the plank up. "I-It's a b-it hard to talk—so I'll be shutting up." And with that, she focused on breathing correctly.

In, and out. In, and out, in, out—in—out—

"Alright, that's time." When she didn't stop, Tezuka repeated himself. "Ryota? It's time. You can stop." Now concerned, he knelt beside her and placed a hand on her back.

Ryoka flinched out of focus, "W-what?"

"You can stop, it's time."

"Oh." She sighed and rolled onto her back. Closing her eyes, she took in deep, slow breaths. She hated the feeling of sweat covering her and making her clothes stick, though currently, that wasn't even on her mind as she took her time to recover and cool down.

Tezuka immediately saw three pools of sweat. One large one where it would have been dripping off her chin, and two long ones from here her forearms were on the ground. He took the timer that Oishi gave him out of his pocket and looked at the time he stopped it at when Ryoka rolled onto her back.

He didn't think that she had been at it for so long.

Fifteen minutes.

He doubted most could last five.

Now after waiting a couple of minutes, which Tezuka thought was considerate enough after when he put her through, he felt that it was time to get her up. "It's just about time for class, you might want to go change while you have the chance."

Sitting up, Ryoka opened her eyes, and through her squint from the harsh sunlight, she saw a hand out to her.

"Daw, looks like you're feeling some guilt from this torture you put me through." She laughed lightly as she took the hand graciously, "Thanks."

Ryoka went to the changerooms and to the bathroom inside them. Locking the door, she took her time getting changed.

_I would rather be late for class and have time to stretch this out._


	5. Chapter 5

Music class eventually came around and Tezuka looked forward to it more than usual, but he was also nervous.  _We're performing our parts for marks today._  He was confident that he would do well, so it couldn't be that. Feeling a poke on his shoulder, he saw Fuji point towards the door. He then came to realise what he was nervous about.

Just before the bell rang, the door slid open with Ryoka entering with a hunch to her back as she shuffled in awkwardly. Tezuka was able to see the full effect of the punishment he administered to Ryoka.

"Nice of you to finally join us Elder Ryota, now if you can please take a seat."

Only huffing a laugh in response to the dry humour, Ryoka nodded vaguely in response and hobbled over to her seat, sitting down slowly with a sigh of relief. Despite the soreness, she had to sit up straight, because even though hunching over might be more comfortable her muscles would get stiff.

Fuji leaned over and used his hand to whisper to Tezuka, "How long did he plank for?" He was curious because even as he left to change Ryoka was still at it.

Glancing to the side past the rims of his glasses, Tezuka mouthed, "Just over fifteen minutes," but apparently Fuji couldn't read his mouth from the blank stare he was receiving. Sighing minutely, he used his fingers, one and six.

Fuji's eyebrows rose—in gym class a member of the gymnastics club planked for a full ten minutes before collapsing, the last one to go down.  _Onodera-sensei was feeling quite sadistic that day, plank until you drop, it was not fun._

"Alright class, today each sectional is going to be performing their part and your peers will be assessing you. You will have to write down your responses, so you better show me that you have been practising!"

Tezuka's eyes followed a hand that raised, "Excuse me Kiku-sensei, but is this in our group sectionals or instrument sectionals?"

"Instrument sectionals, Ryota. Alright, flutes will come first."

Looking around, Ryoka just noticed that there were only two other trumpets.  _Well, I guess we'd be loud enough with the three of us on our own. Plus we have enough for the three parts._  Seeing Fuji get up from his seat, Ryoka grinned, "Knock our socks off Fuji! You've got quite a pair of lungs on ya!"

Lips tugged upwards with a chuckle, "Thank you for your support," and he gave a little bow before standing up front with his fellow flautists.

With the teacher conducting, Tezuka watched and listened. While paying attention to the performance, he couldn't help but frown when Ryoka leaned back in her seat with her eyes closed.  _That's disrespectful..._

"Alright, that was very good. Anyone have some constructive criticism?"

Tezuka was about to raise his hand but was beaten to the punch from someone who he  _thought_ was taking the opportunity to take a nap.

"I'd like to praise the part with the syncopation—no one was off time or anything! Though... I  _did_ hear some tuning issues with the higher notes above the staff, however, the low notes were really rich and round, so well done on that!" Ryoka gave a little round of applause.

Continuing through the sectionals, the Clarinets went up next as the flutes moved away from the front of the room. Fuji walked by Tezuka and gave him a little pat on his shoulder, whispering, "I know you don't like performing much, but you're a good clarinettist."

Just as Fuji silently finished giving him encouragement, a loud voice bellowed, "Break a leg Tezuka! Don't  _read_ into it too much!"

Almost immediately, multiple exasperated sighs were heard in the room as Ryoka cackled.

Despite her terrible jokes and immaturity at times, Tezuka thought that she could be serious when the situation called for it, because when it was time for feedback, he was grateful that she didn't pull any jokes, or punches for that matter. This also relieved him because he was nervous that she would still be upset with him over the plank he made her do.

With a frown, Ryoka tilted her head, "Hmm… Well, Tezuka. You played really well, no mistakes or nothin, but something feels…" she gestured vaguely at him, " _off_."

 _This one really does have quite a bit of music experience under his belt._ "What do you think it is Ryota?" Kikuchi was curious what her outlook on Tezuka's playing was. She thought his playing was perfect save for some parts where a breath was taken too early, a little too perfect.

"There's no emotion put into it. Everything is played by the book and thus sounds flat and stale, I'd try and put more emphasis on the notation like staccato notes and the sforzando—especially the crescendo and decrescendo. This score is exciting and sad, there should be a clear difference between the two tones."

Nodding shallowly, Tezuka agreed with her assessment of his playing. "Thank you Ryota, I'll try my best to improve."

Clapping, the teacher smiled, "Alright, now we'll have the trumpets! From your assessments, I have high expectations."

As she took her trumpet out she chuckled, "Aww man, that's a lot of pressure!" Moving up to the front of the classroom with the other two trumpeters, she asked, "Who's playing which part?" When she got unsure looks from her fellow trumpets, they looked to the teacher.

"Play what sheet music you have."

"But I have both part one and three."

"I have two and three."

"And I have one and two."

Facepalming, Kikuchi sighed, "Decide amongst yourselves." While she loved having students so passionate about music, it could be annoying at times. Like now, when students decide to learn different parts of the same music, and thus cause an argument or something—and then it's usually up to her to decide, but her decision could be considered bias as she would probably choose the best musician to play part one— _Ah, now I'm stressed out! These overachievers are fantastic but also really grind my gears!_

A trumpeter, Ran was her name, quirked a smile, "The oldest should have part one. Senior order, you confident enough for part one, Kenta?"

"Eh… not really, let's give the little hotshot a shot at part one. I'll do part three, Ran are you fine with part two?" Receiving a nod, they got their instruments ready. Kenta had a nice and round sound on his low notes, while Ran was good in the mid-range, so that was a good decision.

Even with the distraction, they were allowed a bit of a warm up. Ryoka took off her mouthpiece and buzzed high and low, played a little dittle, put it back into her trumpet and played a quick scale.

"Alright, from the top then." Kikuchi whapped her conductor stick on the stand in front of her, "We'll skip the seven bar rests and the ten bar rest."

A subtle, "Thank God," was muttered, and with Ryoka covering her mouth, Kikuchi suspected that it was her.

Rubbing his temple, Tezuka breathed deeply as he waited for the Trumpets to start, feeling mildly annoyed. However, his annoyance vanished when Ryoka started with a loud and clean high A that got quieter as it was slurred down to a middle G, and the other trumpets gradually came in with harmonizing tones.

There were a few minor mistakes, and one wrong note from Ryoka, but other than that it sounded fantastic. Now Tezuka knew what she meant from the lack of emotion in his playing— _It seems that we're opposite in that regard, emotion compared to logic…_

"Ryota, if you could play from the top of bar sixty-three, right after the coda."

"Alrighty."

She started playing, and immediately stopped when she hit a note, wincing at the sour sound, "Ah! I'm sorry, I didn't play that note right!" Starting from the same area again, she played through the part a couple times at a faster tempo, "Alrighty, I think I got it down. I wasn't paying attention to the key signature."

"Good to know. Now, any peer feedback?"

A flautist raised their hand, "Uh, while your playing was great, I find that your dynamics were too emphasized—like that high A at the beginning and the D at the end."

Ryoka tilted her head, a little confused, "Even with it as a triple forte sforzando? Well, I'll try and keep it more balanced with everyone else then—thanks!"

The rest of the class wasn't that remarkable compared to some of the other performances. The teacher chose to play the score as a band to point out any further mistakes. Before they knew it, the bell rang.

• • • • • •

With English class done and over with Ryoka and Ryoma headed to the courts together after cleaning the classroom. " _So it's just a light day today_?" Ryoka asked in English. It was a habit for her to switch languages intermittently—usually happening in times of excitement. She also liked that it game some privacy to conversations with her brother.

The two got a few curious looks of people trying to understand what was being said.

Ryoma nodded and responded in English. " _Yeah, it's a free day. The people in the tournament get to choose what they do or can take it easy if they want to. Those not in the tournament have to do normal club activities_."

" _Oooh, I see, I see_." Ryoka stroked her chin, thinking of what she should do. For the past couple of days, she had been using the weight room and did her sprinting exercise around the park on the way home. Maybe she would play a match with her brother— _but damn it that'll give things away. I want to surprise people!_

As they arrived at the courts, Ryoka had come to a decision. A light workout that didn't need the weight room would do.

" _Well_ ," Ryoma stretched briefly after making eye contact with Momoshiro, " _I'm going to do laps, have fun doing whatever you do_."

" _Aha, that I will do, my brethren_." Seeing her brother off with a mock salute, she set her tennis bag down and rummaged around for a piece of equipment she found after digging through her boxes the night before.

The last two to arrive to the club were Tezuka and Fuji who came to see the regulars huddled in the courts trying to organize an exercise. Eiji was adamantly arguing with Kaido that their decision should come down to a coin toss, and not to who does the most laps.

Because obviously that would take a long time and it was skewed in Kaido's favour.

Thankfully Tezuka arrived in time to quell the tension and allow a coin toss to happen. Eiji won, and thus it was decided they were going to do accuracy practice and  _not_ line drills.

"We can do stamina training on our own time. It's club time, let's do something with our racquets!" Eiji exclaimed as his reasoning of not wanting to run.

Quirking a faint smile with Eiji's victory pose, Tezuka settled to keep score for the team.

"There is always a competition with these games—it only motivates them further," Fuji observed, watching as Ryoma taunted Kaido.

" _Aha! There you are_!"

At the familiar English voice, Tezuka turned his head to see Ryoka off to the side rummaging through her oversized bag. He didn't think that she wouldn't be at the courts. "You're not in the weight room."

" _Yeaaaah_ , that would be overkill. I need a light day today—and I'm going to be taking it easy with this baby," she gestured to a skipping rope in her hand and reached into her pocket, fishing out a pair of earbuds. "Don't mind me, I'll just have music on."

Nodding, Tezuka watched as Ryoka started to tap her foot to a rhythm and proceed to skip at the same tempo. Every once in a while Ryoka would stop skipping and do another exercise or take a break.

Fuji nudged Tezuka to get his attention and pointed over to Ryoka who was back to jumping.

She was skipping and clearly jamming out to a song she enjoyed, doing little tricks and bobbing her head to the rhythm. Sometimes Ryoka would start jumping high and doing a rapid set of double unders before switching to something else.

Looking at the rope she was using, Tezuka noticed that it looked thicker than normal skipping ropes.  _Is it weighted?_

When Ryoka slowed to a stop for a break, she grabbed her water bottle. " _Ya know, I haven't used this for a while. I should use it more regularly._ "

Tezuka attributed it to her talking to herself and didn't put the effort into translate.

Soon enough, she got back to it and got out a thinner rope to do speed rounds.

Practice was  _relatively_ uneventful as there were no shenanigans from either Eiji or Ryoka, and soon enough everybody was getting ready to go home for the weekend.

Tezuka was checking over the courts and making sure everything was cleaned up before he went home when he heard the telltale sound of someone hitting a ball against the wall. He increased his pace and rounded a corner to see Ryoka, chasing a ball back and forth with a hop to her step, and pivoting with precision to the next place the ball would bounce to.

 _It doesn't seem like he's focusing on precision with this._  He observed as the marks on the wall were inconsistent.  _Rather than that, he's working on his footwork and the ability to change the balls speed._  It was a good drill to neutralize the power of a smash and set the pace of a rally.

When Ryoka opened her chest to take the next stroke, Tezuka noticed that she spun on her foot, pivoting in the same movement as hitting the ball. With the twist of the movement, he truly saw the muscle definition of Ryoka's body.

_I have to admire his athleticism and—_

He was going to continue with ' _focus'_ but he was startled when she shouted.

" _Fuck_!"

Okay, maybe focus wasn't the best word to be used.

Ryoka instinctively felt that she was a beat behind and knew she was not going to be able to meet with the ball.

Instead, she leapt backwards, barely reaching the speeding ball as it almost hit the ground with its second bounce. She held the racquet loose in her hand, lobbing it with much less force straight upwards and attempted to catch it.

Then she noticed Tezuka standing there.

"Oh! Hi Tez—" and was interrupted as the ball hit her square on the head. Grinning sheepishly, she laughed, "Aha, hi Tezuka! Didn't see you there!" and now she just felt awkward, and sweaty.

"Everybody else has gone home."

Blinking, Ryoka frowned in confusion, "What do you mean? It's only…" she took out her phone and looked at the time, "six- _thirty_! When did this happen?!" Turns out that in the zone Ryoka was in, she ended up losing track of time. "And this was supposed to be an easy day—this is what happens when I hyperfocus. Ah, I'm probably going to be sore for the tournament tomorrow."

Tezuka couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corner of his lips as Ryoka babbled—then it turned to English, and while he could understand some, the rest went over his head. Something about not having a second coffee at lunch (he didn't know that Ryoka liked coffee) and something about Ryoma being annoying?

" _Shit, I'm rambling—what were we talking about?_ "

Ryoka looked at Tezuka, and that was when he realised that she focused back onto him.

"Well, firstly, I would appreciate it if you spoke in Japanese."

Ryoka bit her lips, "Oh.. sorry."

Tezuka shook his head, "Just try and be more aware of it."

He turned around and started walking, and just as Ryoka started to think that she made him upset, he spoke, "It is time to close the courts," Tezuka stopped for a moment, looking over his shoulder, "We can walk together."

Tezuka continued walking and Ryoka grinned. She rushed to pick up the ball and her bag, "Uh, sir, these legs are  _not_ meant to walk the gait of yours! Hold up a sec!"

Before parting ways, Ryoka was grateful that Tezuka corrected her. The tournament was not on Saturday, but on Sunday. There were no club activities in preparation of the tournament.

• • • • • •

Walking into the house, Tezuka announced that he arrived and took off his shoes.

"Kuni, you're home later than usual, I was worried!"

Tezuka stepped up and moved into the kitchen where his mother was just finishing the final touches to dinner.

"That's why you have a phone now dear. You're old enough to go around on your own—but it would be nice if you let us know." The woman gently chided her son with a kind smile.

"I apologise. I was with a friend that kept my attention."

Tezuka's mother, who previously looked tired, was invigorated with the new information. "A friend you say? Is this someone new?" She was honestly worried for her son since he never put himself out there. He was stoic and not flexible—just like her husband—and she knew he had a hard time finding friends.

"Oh stop hounding him Ayana, the boy just got home."

Giving a thankful nod to his grandfather, Tezuka responded, "You know of Echizen Ryoma, correct?"

Ayana scoffed, crossing her arms with a ladle in hands, "Of course. He's that boy that helped you win that tournament in Elementary school."  _Speaking of, I haven't gotten into contact with Rinko for a long while. We're neighbours, this is unacceptable!_

"His sibling returned from America. He joined the tennis club and he is advanced enough to be in our music class."

 _He? I know Ryoma has two siblings and Ryoga isn't in high school… something fishy is going on here._  "You and Fuji practice here occasionally, you should invite them over for dinner and practice."

Sitting down at the table as dinner was served, Tezuka pondered, "... I will think about it."

• • • • • •

Barging in through the door, Ryoka kicked her shoes off to the side and slid into the kitchen. "Ey, Ma! Do ya need help with dinner?"

As Ryoka was talking, she got her question answered when plates were set on the table, "And no, I just finished, you can get your father and brother from the shrine grounds though. I told them to be back half an hour ago."

"Alrighty!"

Running out of the house, she returned not ten minutes later with a father-son duo. Nanjiro was grinning and prodding Ryoma who was pouting.

"Get cleaned up you two! I can't have you be slobs at the table!"

They laughed at the incoherent grumbling between the two. With an athletic household Rinko has gotten accustomed to making large portions, and thankfully she bought enough groceries.

"So have you made any friends in class?" Rinko asked Ryoka, concerned. She knew how Ryoka was, friendly and open, but she knew that Ryoka used to be bullied and she couldn't help but worry.

"Uhhh… not really? I mean there's a few people I'm friendly with, but I haven't really  _connected_  with anyone yet." She pondered over her next piece of pork. "There's Tezuka and Fuji in the third year music class I guess?"

"You need to connect more."

"Oh, shush you, Ryoma—you don't even have a friend in our class!"

"Well, I have friends in another homeroom."

Ryoka frowned, sulking, "Well if Sakura was in our class you'd  _totally_ be friendly."

"It's Sakuno—and shut  _up!_ "

This was why they sat  _across_  from each other at the dinner table. But that didn't stop Ryoka from jabbing Ryoma's shin with her foot.

"That's  _enough_  you two, or do I need to take away your allowance?"

Ryoma paled and shook his head, meanwhile, Ryoka looked confused, "We have an allowance?"

"Yes you do," Rinko also thought it was a good time to sort out the chore duties now that everyone was assembled. Ryoka offered to clean dishes in preference to vacuuming which was now slated to Nanjiro.

Now assigned with a task, Ryoka set out to her duty.

"Agh!" Ryoka grimaced as water shot up and soaked her, "Damn you spoons!  _Thyne nemesis is you!_ " That was the last of the dishes, and it had to be the  _last_ utensil.  _Irony is funny, but not on me._

Rubbing her face, she heard a chuckle behind her and a small towel dropped onto her head.

"I have some good news and some bad news for you Ryoka dear."

Ryoka laughed and quipped, "Is this towel covered in chloroform?" causing her mother to chuckle with her.

"No. It's about you looking for a job."

"Is there no job anywhere? I looked around the neighbourhood and there's  _nothing_!" Ryoka grumbled—there was no corner store needing staff, or little restaurant or nothing!

The two moved outside to sit on the porch, the temperature dropping as the sun went past the treeline. Plopping down onto the edge, Ryoka swung her legs as her mother slowly sat down beside her.

"I have a friend that runs a cafe. She's a good person and the cafe is about one station away which is a decent run for you. The good part is that it pays well."

"—And the bad part?"

"I'm not sure you would find it very… comfortable. It is a butler cafe. Uniform is a suit or blazer and all the wait staff are men. The only opening is as a server."

Ryoka thought on it, she was good with people, and as a waiter, there would be no contact anyways so she would be fine—hopefully. "I think I'd be good at that! I'm good with people and customer service, it would just be something to adapt to." She was no stranger to social interaction, so it could be alright.

"I'll put a word in for you then."

"That would be fantastic mum! I'll get a resume done up by the end of the week! Now I gotta nag Ryoma about the team for tomorrow… er, Sunday!"

Rinko sighed but smiled as Ryoka bolted up the stairs.  _Well, she's taken to not wear socks so she wouldn't slip anymore… that's progress, I guess._

• • • • • •

Ryoka felt good and spry after doing her morning stretches and preparing. The night before she nagged Ryoma about the basic styles of the regulars just so she could be prepared and then she did her resume.

_It's better to do that type of stuff right away and look at it later with a fresh eye._

She nodded to herself and ate her breakfast while Nanako woke up her brother who slept like a brick. Ryoka would have done it, but the family has come to a consensus that she shouldn't' with what happened last time—and thus the duty was put onto Nanako once again.  _How was I supposed to know he would react violently?_  She got socked in the gut and a petty war started between them because of it.

Ryoka became fixated on her fish as the lesson she was listening to was going over food vocabulary.

"Fru-frühstücken," she sounded out slowly, munching on her breakfast.

Nanjiro looked at his daughter quizzically,  _what in the world is she doing?_  But she looked focused so he continued reading the paper.

Ryoma was finally ready and he only had time to grab a piece of toast with a generous amount of avocado on it before leaving.

As they were jogging to their school, Ryoka babbled to her brother about unimportant things. She went over the information that Ryoma told her; Kaido was a stamina guy who played the long haul, Momo was an attacker that won points from the net with his smashes and strong groundstrokes, Kikumaru was similar to her in the sporadic scene, but he mainly used serve and volley, Oichi stuck at the baseline and won with opponent error and pacing, his main finisher being a lob move, then there was Inui, a data player—the longer you play against them, the more screwed you get. She was most concerned about Fuji and Tezuka. Fuji was a counter puncher, and as she used that style often she knew how annoying it was to play against them.

Tezuka she already had a feel for as she played a match with him already. He probably didn't have a good grasp on her playstyle because when they played she was jet-lagged and stir crazy—she just wanted to blow off steam.

_I'm gonna overthink before I even get there. And speaking of Tezuka—_

"Tezuka!" Ryoka jogged faster to catch up to him, Ryoma tagging along. "Fancy seeing you this wonderful morning. How's it goin?"

It was like being blinded by LED headlights on a highway at night. Ryoka's energy was something Tezuka was jealous of. "I'm doing well." He made eye contact with Ryoma who looked scandalized with how informal Ryoka was being with him. He nodded, "Good morning Echizen."

"Good morning, Bucho."

"Ya know, I still think it's weird that there are club activities on the weekends. My school in the States only had regular club things after class hours, never on the weekends. Clubs were seasonal too, not an all year round commitment."

Ryoma, still feeling awkward, remembered something and spoke up, "How many clubs did you join? I vaguely remember you talking about a basketball team, badminton, soccer and track."

"Yeah, I was also in the school band—Clubs were fun."

Now on school grounds and making their way to the courts, Tezuka found something odd, "You didn't join the tennis club?"

"Oh of course I did! It was in the fall with basketball season so I got a bunch of footwork training in," she grinned. "How bout you? Any other interest in a sport besides tennis?"

It was at this point when Fuji came up from behind, "Tezuka is good at archery."

Ryoka noticed Tezuka flinch and jump in his skin,  _he sure is jumpy when caught off guard, huh?_

"And Billiards." Ryoma piped in and it made them remember back in middle school when they had a betting fiasco. Tezuka won.

 _Tezuka with a bow in hand, huh?_  She could picture him in a haori, those fancy robes, with a bow in hand, totally. "That sounds cool, I'd be interested in trying that out. Tezuka looks like he'd burn a hole through the target—not with an arrow, but with his glare!" She laughed when Tezuka's eyes looked down at her and she felt that it would be best to peel.

"Uh, I'm gonna go warm up!"

A small smile graced Fuji's face as he observed the interaction. He knew Tezuka's tells, and right now he seemed happy and definitely embarrassed.

"There will be a meeting in half an hour before the brackets are announced, be ready by then." Tezuka broke off with Fuji, heading to where Ryuzaki would be. He frowned,  _am I really that intimidating?_

Beside him, he pointedly ignored Fuji who was laughing at him.

Ryoka made sure to drink some fluids. It was supposed to be warm and she didn't want to start getting dehydrated before matches even started. Other people started arriving and Ryoma also broke off to join the other first years.

The sound of a whistle signalled the gathering and they were told to go to their blocks. Ryoka was in block A with two regulars, Inui and Fuji.

Ryoka wasn't going to be up until a few other matches passed, so she walked around, observing various matches.  _That second year has a good groundstroke, he's probably a retriever with how good his lateral movement is. And the guy he's playing doesn't have much stamina, but he's throwing the retriever off his game with well-placed volleys and drop shots._

Rounding the corner, a reporter caught sight of a familiar short, dark-haired first year. "Echizen, last I looked you were playing a match, how did you finish so quickly?"

Blinking owlishly, she looked up to a male with short light brown hair who was holding a camera and notepad.

Suppressing a grin at a mischievous thought, Ryoka decided not to ruin her brothers' reputation. "It was just a warm-up." Then she noticed a look of recognition, she wasn't wearing the regulars uniform. "Uh, yeah. Sorry to burst your bubble, but I'm not the Echizen that you're looking for man." It was also about time for her match, "He's in block B, but you may find some entertainment at block A." She grinned and waved, jogging to the court where her match was.

The man blinked owlishly, severely confused,  _that wasn't Ryoma?_   _Or am I hallucinating?_  He supposed that he was a bit hot under the collar, dressing in too heavy of a shirt for the weather. Unloosing the top button, he shook his head in confusion and walked to block B.

"Ah, Inoue, back for another article I see." Ryuzaki in her pink tracksuit glory greeted the man. She paused and looked concerned when he looked dazed. "What happened? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Are there two Echizen's? I think the heat might be getting to me."

"Go see block A after lunch, I think you'll be in for a surprise."

Inui felt frustrated as he watched the shorter of the two twins.  _Is he just playing around?_  He knew Ryoka had to be a good player, but she certainly wasn't showing it.

Ryoka was in the lead, utterly destroying her opponent, but… it was strange. She wasn't using her full potential as if it were on purpose. No killer serve, no winners and no overt tactics. Just a regular game won through the error of her opponent and targeting their weaknesses.

When that match finished, Inui only had the bare minimum of data about Ryoka's play style. He could infer her strong points from the practices at school, but other than that he was going in blind.

Ryoka grinned to herself as she left to have lunch. She saw Inui watching her and since she knew he was a data player, and thus she didn't give anything away.

After a light lunch and a good stretching session, Ryoka met Inui at their court.

"Ah, so it's a repeat of Echizen's first year of middle school," Inoue recalled, it was quite amusing how history repeated itself.

"He's so short compared to Inui."

Eguchi snorted as his classmates' observation, "He's short compared to  _anybody_."

"Rough or smooth?" Ryoka questioned, looking up with a grin. She could hear people talk about their height difference and it was hilarious. Though she purposefully shot a look at Eguchi. She was playing him next—it was not the best practice to taunt the person that would mop the floor with him.

"Rough."

Spinning the racquet on its head, Ryoka took a look when it hit the ground, "Ah, your serve it is," and tossed the ball to him.

Returning the serve with little difficulty, Ryoka chose not to hit with technique, nor power. She opted to extend a rally and get Inui accustomed to the speed she was hitting the ball at.

"What is with this boring playstyle?" Eguchi questioned dryly, "This isn't entertaining at all—"

"Sixty, thirty, Echizen to serve."

Eguchi blinked and suddenly it was silent.

"You know, it's boooring to play like this," Ryoka complained as bounced the ball on the ground, once, twice, thrice.

"Then why play like this?" Inui was confused,  _Why complain about how you're playing?_

"Because!" She caught it and tossed it high in the air.

_It's mad to toss it that high, it's going to go off course—_

Inui blinked, and he registered the sound of a racket hitting a ball along with a deep grunt from his opponent.

_But where was the ball?_

Ryoka landed on the balls of her feet and rocked back and forth with that cursed grin on her face, "Aha, because then you won't get used to  _that_."

• • • • • •

Tezuka just finished his most recent match when there was an uproar in a nearby court and looked to see where it came from.

"I will assume that you won, right Tezuka?"

"Ah."

Nodding, Fuji marked the score down, six-zero. "I think that came from A block. Ryota is playing Inui right now. Too bad I can't watch my next opponent."

"Thank you, Fuji. I will go and see."

Fuji smiled,  _That is not what I meant, but that's fine._  He was hoping that Tezuka would offer to take his place so he could check it out, but that's fine.

He didn't want to watch the match anyway.

• • • • • •

"Aha! You think I'll let you get used to me?  _Never!_ "

After being around Ryoka for quite some time since she arrived, Tezuka thought he would get used to her eccentricities. Apparently not, because he was taken aback when he arrived on the scene.

Ryoka was playing with the slowest racquet speed that he has ever seen. He wondered how she was hitting the ball accurately with that horrible technique, but the next point Inui got was from an accuracy error of Ryoka's.

"Tezuka!"

"Ah, Inoue-san, pleasure to see you."

"Thank you, but has Ryoma gone crazy? What is going on? Is that even Ryoma?" Inoue was so confused that Tezuka felt pity for the man.

"Yes, that is not Ryoma."

Blinking in confusion, Inoue stared at Ryoka. "Not… Ryoma?"

"Indeed. That is his twin sibling, Ryota Echizen."

Inoue sighed and collapsed into a crouch, "I thought I was going insane—but a twin? I have never heard of this!" And now he had his notebook out, jotted various things down, and readied his camera. "Thank you, Tezuka."

Nodding, he let the reporter get to his work after some sort of epiphany and he resumed watching Ryoka's match.

Inui looked stressed out and by the looks of things, Ryoka was relishing in it.

"I hit it to the right last time, but what if I…" she paused, and just before she hit, " _lobbed_  it?"

It was a gamble, but Inui took a step back and instead of a lob, it was a drop shot.

The game at the courts near the station popped to mind as she toyed with Sasabe.

With Ryoka winning that game, the total was four games to three in Ryoka's favour.

"He's terrifying Bucho. Inui can't keep up." Oishi spoke up from behind him, causing Tezuka to jump in his skin.  _ **I**_ _would have a tough time keeping up._

"He's playing to Inui's weakness. Lack of data accompanied by an erratic playstyle."

They watched Ryoka nullify the power of a smash, returning weakly and hit the next shot with a killer. Ryoka cackled like a villain, "By the time you get used to me it'll be too late for you, data-player! Aha-ha!"

Tezuka watched as she slowed the pace of their rally down to a grinding halt. Without proper technique, it was difficult to generate power without the ball having decent speed already, and even with the technique, it required it took more stamina to add that power to the ball.

Inui took a page out of Ryoka's book and tried to win a point by going for a kill, but Ryoka took the power from his shot and returned it with just as much gusto and won the game.

Off in the distance, Inoue shared the same thought as Tezuka.

_Terrifying indeed._


End file.
